Shared Experience
Organizational Culture and Ethos at the U.S. Marine Corps Basic School, 1924-1941
Jennifer L. Mazzara, PhD
DOI: 10.56686/9798986259406
ABOUT THE BOOK
From early in the modern history of the Marine Corps, The Basic School (TBS) has played an enormously important role in acculturating Marine officers in the profession of arms. Author Jennifer Mazzara’s exhaustive and detailed research, which included examining the curricula of prewar TBS, shows that the TBS product, the Marine lieutenant, was fundamental to the early victories of the Second World War. As the only basic-level post-commissioning school in the United States that imparts a generalist education, rather than specialist training, TBS is unique among the military schools operated by the U.S. armed forces. Its distinctiveness stems from two primary features: its structure, and what it provides to its graduates. This history reveals TBS’s essential qualities during the interwar period, but it also illuminates the timeless and immutable reality and necessity of this institution that has bound generations of Marine officers to each other and to the Corps.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Methodology: Primary Sources and Collections
Introduction
Chapter 1. Professional Military Education in Context
Chapter 2. Early History of The Basic School
Chapter 3. Sea Service Heritage
Chapter 4. Land Warfare Doctrine and Fort Benning
Chapter 5. League Island in the 1920s
Chapter 6. League Island in the 1930s
Chapter 7. A Personal View of the Shared Experience: Class of 1937–38 Case Study
Conclusion: Origin of an Ethos
Appendices
Appendix A. Biographical Notes on Instructors
Appendix B. Staff and Students from the Marine Corps Muster Rolls
Appendix C. Biographical Note for First Lieutenant Anthony A. Frances
Appendix D. Marine Corps History Division
Appendix E. Full-format Sample of Fort Benning Infantry School Curriculum
Appendix F. Books Written by or about League Island Students and Staff
Appendix G. MH-5, Books for Recommended Reading (1933–34)
Reflections on The Basic School
Selected Bibliography