We were a haggard platoon of Marines, having just returned from the field just a few hours earlier. The group had been waiting since late morning for the Company Commander’s infamous safety brief, having already checked to make sure all Marines and equipment were accounted for. My Marines stopped pretending to clean the radio equipment to head to formation as the Company staff triumphantly walked from their offices up to the formation hill.
“Company, atten-tiiioon!” the Company First Sergeant yelled, signaling the start of the forced script. 20 minutes later, I snapped back to the formation. The company commander had just told a joke and was rewarded with the appropriate amount of forced laughter from the hostage audience. More comments about safety, ooh-rahs, sex, and alcohol.
“We must get out of the habit of a zero-defect mentality” the company commander bellowed towards his group of gathered Marines, who were discreetly looking at their watches. He called the first sergeant up to the front who promptly caveated and piggy-backed a few comments before dismissing the group. The company commander walked over to me while the Marines hastily shuffled away while deliberately avoiding eye contact with anyone.
“Lieutenant, can I speak with you?” he asked while throwing in an ample amount of Copenhagen into his bottom lip.
“Of course, sir” I replied as I followed him to his office. His domain sat in the corner of our command post, a government cream-brown painted post-war relic that seemed of a different era. The scuffed floor and stale ceilings tiles probably had been there longer than both of our lifespans put together. The fluorescent lit office was decorated in challenge coins and engraved items, signaling the proper amount of deference to give him.
He held up the stack of request forms I had sent to him 2 weeks earlier before we went to the field. The 2 red marks made my heart drop slightly.
“What do you think I’m about to tell you? I need you to do better than this.” he said, solidifying my distaste for his vaguely socratic method of chastising. I took the paper from him and read the remarks.
“Change this ‘2’ to a ‘two’” read one of the comments. “double space here” read another after one of the sentences. I mentally rolled my eyes.
“I imagine you’ll say you edited the digital copy and forwarded it to the Battalion Commander while we were out at Training Area 5, sir?”
“Nice try, smartass,” he ripped back, “you need to know how important it is as an officer to be perfect in your naval letter formatting. It’s my job as the company commander to ensure that you lieutenants understand this. No mistakes. Now I’m on leave next week, and I would normally let the XO sign this, but I think I need to see your comments back afterwards in the inbox. Oh, and he said he had some corrections too. Dismissed.”
As a Marine Officer, I was constantly sending up written orders, memorandums, and other documentation that required signatures from the company commander, battalion commander. Often times I was met with the dreaded red pen. This red pen often made corrections that were not substantive in nature.
- SECNAV MANUAL 5216.5 CHANGE TRANSMITTAL 1 (16 May 2018)
- MCO 5215.1K Marine Corps Directives Management Program (10 May 2007)
Naval correspondence manual takes priority. MCO 5215.1K cites SECNAV MANUAL 5216.5 as a reference, therefore it must be a downstream order and must follow its guidance.
- Typeface. For text, use 10 to 12 point font size. Times New Roman 12-point is the preferred font style and size for official correspondence, but Courier New may be used for informal correspondence. Bold, underline, script, and italics may be used for occasional emphasis, but not for entire letters. (Page 2-13)
Page 4-2 of the Naval Correspondence Manual states for informal correspondence: "There are no specific guidelines for informal correspondence; however, keep it brief, use good taste, and observe traditional customs and courtesies. Do not use a complete signature line to identify the sender, but the sender must be fully identified. You may omit the signature line entirely if your computer automatically identifies the sender."
Therefore, given that informal correspondence does not use signature lines, Marine Corps Orders MUST be formal correspondence.