Strategic Corporal

A consequence of contemporary thinking about modern military forces, who have both extensive communications and media visibility, is that of the Strategic Corporal. It means that the most junior soldiers may have to take actions that have consequences at the highest level of national policy, requiring more thoughtfulness in &mdash; and more information to &mdash; junior leaders. A corporal, in land combat, usually leads 5-10 soldiers. Some of the strongest advocates of the concept, although not the only ones, are in the United States Marine Corps.

Such responsibilities can be purely military, or go well beyond. During the 1991 Gulf War, at the Battle of Khafji, two U.S. Marine reconnaissance patrols, led by corporals, stayed in the city after it was overrun by Iraqi regular troops. They played a key role both in providing intelligence and in directing air and artillery strikes.

More elaboration came in a hypothetical article by the Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1999. Major Lynda Libby, of the Australian Army, describes it, basing her paper on a 2002 statement by Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, Chief of the Australian Army, as the Australian Army must begin to foster a military culture that is aimed at preparing non-commissioned officers (NCOs) to become what has been described as ‘strategic corporals’. The term strategic corporal refers to the devolution of command responsibility to lower rank levels in an era of instant communications and pervasive media images.

In the Battle of Fallujah, "the small unit leader emerged as a center of gravity. His ability to affect the tactical level had strategic implications." To maximize the positive effects of these small unit leaders, the Marines developed their strategy to integrate the Three Block War principles with Network Centric Warfare concepts. They used the training concepts developed for the Three Block War and augmented them with the equipment developed for Network Centric Warfare. The result was tantamount to a human network centered on the small unit leader, the Strategic Corporal.