CPLS COURSE CORE SETS ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS - ✔✔The Commandant of the Marine
Corps, or the CMC, is responsible for the readiness of the Marine Corps including our
administration, discipline, internal organization, training, requirements, and efficiency.
The CMC:
•Answers directly to the Secretary of the Navy in the performance, operation, and
readiness of the Marine Corps
•Provides ready, expeditionary forces to meet the operational requirements of the
combatant commanders
✔✔MARINE CORPS MISSION - ✔✔Historically, Marine Corps preparedness has been
characterized by the phrase, "first to fight." The official mission of the U.S. Marine Corps
was established in the National Security Act of 1947, amended in 1952.
Marines are trained, organized, and equipped for:
•Offensive amphibious employment
•Employment as a general purpose, "force in readiness," to support national needs
✔✔FUNCTIONS OF THE MARINE CORPS - ✔✔The Marine Corps, within the
Department of the Navy, shall serve as an expeditionary force in readiness and perform
the following specific functions:
•Seize and defend advanced naval bases or lodgments (areas) to facilitate subsequent
joint operations.
•Provide close air support for ground forces.
•Conduct land and air operations essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign or as
directed.
•Conduct complex expeditionary operations in the urban littorals (on or near shores) and
other challenging environments.
•Conduct amphibious operations, including engagement, crisis response, and power
projection operations to assure access. The Marine Corps has primary responsibility for
the development of amphibious doctrine, tactics, techniques, and equipment.
•Conduct security and stability operations and assist with the initial establishment of a
military government pending transfer of this responsibility to other authority.
, •Provide security detachments and units for service on armed vessels of the Navy,
provide protection of naval property at naval stations and bases, provide security at
designated U.S. embassies and consulates, and perform other such duties as the
President or the Secretary of Defense may direct. These additional duties may not
detract from or interfere with the operations for which the Marine Corps is primarily
organized.
•Organize Marine Corps aviation, as a collateral function, to participate as an integral
component of naval aviation.
•Provide Marines in support of the Department of State security program overseas.
✔✔KEY MARINE CORPS TASKS - ✔✔Twenty-first century security challenges
demand a ready force that fills the void between special operations forces and heavy
ground formations—a force that can leverage its expeditionary character to respond not
only to crises, but also to proactively influence regional conditions. To fulfill its role as
the nation's expeditionary force in readiness, Marine Corps forces must be able to
perform these key tasks.
✔✔Conduct Military Engagement - ✔✔The ability of the Marine Corps to conduct
military engagement is essential to building partner capability and capacity, forging
relationships across cultural barriers, and promoting diplomatic access.
•Sea-based military engagement facilitates interaction while treading lightly on the
sovereignty of the partner-nations.
•Forward posture is critical to providing effective engagement and ensuring rapid
response to crises.
✔✔Respond Rapidly to Crisis - ✔✔Whether a crisis is natural or manmade, crisis
response operations alleviate or mitigate the impact of an incident or situation. The
ability to rapidly project additional Marine Corps capabilities in response to a crisis
requires:
•Forward-postured forces
•A high state of expeditionary readiness
✔✔Project Power - ✔✔The Marine Corps forces leverage and contribute to a larger,
"whole-of-government" system of projecting "smart" power across the range of military
operations. Smart power is the ability to selectively apply soft and hard power in
combinations appropriate to a given situation to achieve national objectives.
•Soft power is the use of persuasive means, such as cultural affinity, diplomacy,
economic interaction, and foreign assistance, to establish legitimacy and influence or
attract others to align their policies, interests, or objectives with one's own.
•Hard power is the use of military or economic coercion to influence the behavior of
others. Power projection includes joint assured access operations from the sea, as
enabled by littoral maneuver.
✔✔Conduct Littoral Maneuver - ✔✔Naval forces are uniquely capable of conducting
littoral maneuver, the ability to transition ready-to-fight combat forces from the sea to the
shore to achieve a position of advantage over the enemy. Littoral maneuver may be
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS - ✔✔The Commandant of the Marine
Corps, or the CMC, is responsible for the readiness of the Marine Corps including our
administration, discipline, internal organization, training, requirements, and efficiency.
The CMC:
•Answers directly to the Secretary of the Navy in the performance, operation, and
readiness of the Marine Corps
•Provides ready, expeditionary forces to meet the operational requirements of the
combatant commanders
✔✔MARINE CORPS MISSION - ✔✔Historically, Marine Corps preparedness has been
characterized by the phrase, "first to fight." The official mission of the U.S. Marine Corps
was established in the National Security Act of 1947, amended in 1952.
Marines are trained, organized, and equipped for:
•Offensive amphibious employment
•Employment as a general purpose, "force in readiness," to support national needs
✔✔FUNCTIONS OF THE MARINE CORPS - ✔✔The Marine Corps, within the
Department of the Navy, shall serve as an expeditionary force in readiness and perform
the following specific functions:
•Seize and defend advanced naval bases or lodgments (areas) to facilitate subsequent
joint operations.
•Provide close air support for ground forces.
•Conduct land and air operations essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign or as
directed.
•Conduct complex expeditionary operations in the urban littorals (on or near shores) and
other challenging environments.
•Conduct amphibious operations, including engagement, crisis response, and power
projection operations to assure access. The Marine Corps has primary responsibility for
the development of amphibious doctrine, tactics, techniques, and equipment.
•Conduct security and stability operations and assist with the initial establishment of a
military government pending transfer of this responsibility to other authority.
, •Provide security detachments and units for service on armed vessels of the Navy,
provide protection of naval property at naval stations and bases, provide security at
designated U.S. embassies and consulates, and perform other such duties as the
President or the Secretary of Defense may direct. These additional duties may not
detract from or interfere with the operations for which the Marine Corps is primarily
organized.
•Organize Marine Corps aviation, as a collateral function, to participate as an integral
component of naval aviation.
•Provide Marines in support of the Department of State security program overseas.
✔✔KEY MARINE CORPS TASKS - ✔✔Twenty-first century security challenges
demand a ready force that fills the void between special operations forces and heavy
ground formations—a force that can leverage its expeditionary character to respond not
only to crises, but also to proactively influence regional conditions. To fulfill its role as
the nation's expeditionary force in readiness, Marine Corps forces must be able to
perform these key tasks.
✔✔Conduct Military Engagement - ✔✔The ability of the Marine Corps to conduct
military engagement is essential to building partner capability and capacity, forging
relationships across cultural barriers, and promoting diplomatic access.
•Sea-based military engagement facilitates interaction while treading lightly on the
sovereignty of the partner-nations.
•Forward posture is critical to providing effective engagement and ensuring rapid
response to crises.
✔✔Respond Rapidly to Crisis - ✔✔Whether a crisis is natural or manmade, crisis
response operations alleviate or mitigate the impact of an incident or situation. The
ability to rapidly project additional Marine Corps capabilities in response to a crisis
requires:
•Forward-postured forces
•A high state of expeditionary readiness
✔✔Project Power - ✔✔The Marine Corps forces leverage and contribute to a larger,
"whole-of-government" system of projecting "smart" power across the range of military
operations. Smart power is the ability to selectively apply soft and hard power in
combinations appropriate to a given situation to achieve national objectives.
•Soft power is the use of persuasive means, such as cultural affinity, diplomacy,
economic interaction, and foreign assistance, to establish legitimacy and influence or
attract others to align their policies, interests, or objectives with one's own.
•Hard power is the use of military or economic coercion to influence the behavior of
others. Power projection includes joint assured access operations from the sea, as
enabled by littoral maneuver.
✔✔Conduct Littoral Maneuver - ✔✔Naval forces are uniquely capable of conducting
littoral maneuver, the ability to transition ready-to-fight combat forces from the sea to the
shore to achieve a position of advantage over the enemy. Littoral maneuver may be
