New 4500 MOS takes Corps back to future

In this 1944 photo, Cyril ‘Cy’ O’Brien, a former Marine combat correspondent, uses a typewriter on Guam.

Norman Hatch

Holy South Pacific, Batman!  Yup, as of 1 October 2017 our warrior-storytellers are now known as “Combat Mass Communicators.”  Those currently on active duty are respectfully referred to as “legacy” combat camera or  public affairs Marines – but from here on out, they will learn, teach, lead and fight as fire-breathing, one-call-gets-it-all jacks-of-all-trade.

Staff sergeants and above, no matter what MOS they grew up in, are now designated “Communication Strategy and Operations Chiefs.”

Kinda like the USMCCCA, when our World War II tribal elders deployed often as full-purpose teams … and even full-purpose individuals.  Back to the days of stalwarts like Norm Hatch and Cy O’Brien, pictured here (Sgt. Hatch is the fully clothed one).

Sgt. Russ Midori

“The best among us,” quipped former Sgt. Russ Midori, “did it that way, regardless.  If your shop did not have a cross-training program – you made your own,” said the former multiple DPA winner, now a field producer and editor with CBS News.

And, as Maj. Gen. Paul Kennedy noted in San Diego at the CC Awards Banquet last month, it’s back to the more recent practice of Marine Air-Ground Task Forces(MAGTFs).  “One Team. One Fight.”

One of the key components of the 2018 USMCCCA Training Symposium in New Bern, North Carolina August 20-23, 2018 will be a “First Year” look at progress throughout the Corps vis-à-vis our “MOS merger.”

“But I can already tell you how it’s going,” Kennedy told the dress-blues-attired at the California event. “It’s going great. We’re already doing it.  We’ve been doing it.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Click here for full details on the MOS merger. Thanks to CC Michael Armistead for providing.