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<a href="http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette">www.mca-marines.org/gazette</a> 47 M a r i n e C o r p s G a z e t t e • M a y 2 0 0 9 answer to a particular problem, they lacked the critical thinking and analyt- ical skills that would have allowed them to adapt NotionalCom’s answer to one more relevant to their unit, in this case the MEU. Additionally, these Marines would often get buried in the details of the information they gath- ered during the filter and record steps of the analytic process. They struggled to grasp the larger intelligence problem and to progress on to the evaluate and analyze steps. This inability to take data and turn it into understanding for the commander and his staff is seen too often during MISCC iterations and highlights the lack of formal analysis training. (See Figure 2.) In addition, many students lack suf- ficient understanding of friendly oper- ations to be able to adapt this knowledge into potential enemy capa- bilities, resulting in a reduced ability to provide input to the MCPP. While 0231s are expected to conduct analyses as part of their daily duties, unless they have attended MISCC or an outside agency’s analysis course, such as the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Intelli- gence Analysis Course, they have never been formally trained to conduct analyses to the depth required to sup- port mission planning. With this lack of training for enlisted intelligence Marines, the conduct of in- telligence-driven operations is infinitely more difficult, since the number of any given intelligence section’s Marines who understand the holistic problem is often limited to the intelligence officers. It should be no surprise to find out that intelligence officers receive nearly twice as much training as their enlisted coun- terparts and, through their training pipeline, emerge with a greater under- standing of friendly operations, allow- ing them better situational awareness to draw upon when building a coherent intelligence picture. Similar to the arti- cle “Bridging the Gap,” where the au- thor cited the disparity in training in the infantry community between the 0302 and 0369, the intelligence com- munity has the same issue and is not doing all it can to ensure that its en- listed intelligence professionals are re- ceiving the education that they need to be successful.1 Further widening the gap in train- ing, intelligence officers are required to attend the MAGTF Intelligence Offi- cer Course to be awarded the 0202 MOS and remain competitive for pro- Figure 2. Source: Marine Corps Warfighting Publication 2–1, Intelligence Operations
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