Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring you another installment of Semper Cinema with our review of the 1970 made-for-TV movie, Tribes. Full disclosure, we chose this movie because we wanted to break the Semper Cinema paradigm and veer a bit off our normal course to go with a movie we knew was less than stellar. And Tribes does not disappoint. Aired as the ABC Movie of the Week, it is basically a boot camp movie, starring Jan Michael Vincent of Airwolf fame and Darren McGavin, probably most famously known for playing the dad in A Christmas Story. And although we have our criticisms, it did well, earning three Emmy Awards and ranking as the #8 boot camp movie by Screen Junkies. Tribes clearly influenced some of the more significant Marine Corps movies of the 80s and 90s, but for us, it mostly influenced us to not recommend portraying Marine Corps boot camp in a made-for-TV format. But as always, we have fun with it.

Enjoy!

The post #241: Semper Cinema – Tribes first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we’re super excited to be welcoming retired MajGen James Lukeman to the scuttlebutt. MajGen Lukeman is President and CEO of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. To go through his entire career would require a multi-episode documentary series, but needless to say, it is a huge honor to have MajGen Lukeman on the show. In this episode, we talk about his upbringing as a Marine son and how, as a chemical engineer, he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps to the yellow footprints. We also discuss how the Heritage Foundation supports the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the importance of maintaining pride in the Marine Corps’ role in American history. Not only among the ranks, but also to raise the awareness of the public. From sponsoring Major League Baseball Spring Training to the Heritage Foundation Annual Awards Dinner, which will take place this Saturday, April 25th, at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. His authentic passion and love for the Marine Corps are infectious, and we hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

Enjoy!

The post #240: Marine Corps Heritage Foundation with MajGen James Lukeman (Ret) first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we’re talking Modern Day Marine 2026, so we brought the MCA’s Director of National Military Association Engagement and Expositions, Marta Sullivan, and the Director of Strategy, Plans & Assessment at Headquarters Marine Corps Comms Directorate, LtCol Nick Mannweiler, to the scuttlebutt to talk to us about what’s in store for the premier military exposition. From the key leadership engagements and TedTalk-style presentations to the Commandant’s Cup wargaming tourney at Objective 1, there’s something for everyone. And of course, there’sall the cool stuff. Vendors, large and small, will be presenting their innovations to support Force Design and the Marine Corps’ modernization efforts. If that weren’tenough to get you hyped, we’ll be there recording live from the showroom floor. Come check us out and say hi!

Enjoy!

marinemilitaryexpos.com

The post #239: Modern Day Marine 2026 first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome August Cole back to the scuttlebutt. August joined us last year at Modern Day Marine in Episode 193 and was kind enough to come on again. Please go back and check that out. For those who missed it, August is the co-author of the books Ghost Fleetand Burn-In, managing partner of Useful Fiction, and a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He was also a journalist for the Wall Street Journal and he talks to us about being a journalist and how his experience informs his fiction writing. We also dive into narrative and the power of storytelling, and how telling stories about what could be helps tell the story of what is. Also, with this being the ten-year anniversary of Ghost Fleet, he shares some insights into how “right” his books are.

Enjoy!

augustcole.com

instagram.com/augustcole

useful-fiction.com

The post #238: The Power of Narrative with August Cole first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we will be doing a deep dive into the Commandant’s Professional Reading List, exploring various titles and talking with authors about some of the books on the list. Today, we welcome Ian Brown back to the show. Ian has been on a few times, participating in our World of Wargaming series and is one of the most prolific advocates for the benefits of wargaming and robust military education. He is also the author of A New Conception of War: John Boyd, the U.S. Marines, and Maneuver Warfare and Snowmobiles and Grand Ideas: John Boyd’s Vision for Thriving in Chaos. Ian talks to us about A New Conception of War, the genesis of the project, and what it means to him to have his book on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List three years running. And more than anything, why A New Conception of War deserves to be on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List.

Enjoy!

linkedin.com/in/ian-brown-41b2bb94

x.com/ian_tb03

The post #237: Literary Lethality with Ian Brown first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us at the scuttlebutt. This week, the team comes together to form Voltron to recognize this month as the 110th anniversary of the Marine Corps Gazette being in continuous publication. It’s no small feat for any publication to continuously be in circulation for this long, especially in this digital age where literary works, particularly those in pulp, are in decline. But the significance of the Gazette goes beyond the dates. Nancy, William, and I talk about some of the significance, in particular the Gazette’s role in institutionalizing maneuver warfare.

This is a wonderful milestone and it’s awesome that the Marine Corps Association continues to provide a forum for the presentation of ideas and professional discourse. Congratulations to the Gazette staff, past and present.

Enjoy!

The post #236: Celebrating the Gazette’s 110th Anniversary first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and your continued support. This week, we welcome Josh Cannon to the scuttlebutt. Josh is a veteran Marine of OIF and the Director of Research for the Frederick Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the author of Fatal Second Helen: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad, a book that overlays his experience in combat with the themes of the Iliad. This was a fascinating discussion about what it is that the narrative of the Iliad did for the ancient Greeks, and how it applies to us today, especially those who wear the uniform. We joke about the action heroes of the 80s and 90s and how fun those movies were, but how those stories are infamous for being shallow and for having one-dimensional characters. Josh helps us understand that this tradition is actually prevalent throughout history, with the Iliad in particular (a text written around the 8th century BC) as not only one of the oldest surviving literary works, but possibly the first recorded action story, as it is so similar to the action genre of the Schwarzenegger and Stallone films.

Also, we want to recognize that March is the 110th anniversary of the Marine Corps Gazette being in continuous publication. A wonderful milestone and congratulations to the Gazette staff, past and present.

Enjoy!

veteransiliad.com

The post #235: A Modern Veteran’s Iliad with Josh Cannon first appeared on Marine Corps Association.

Hey, Scuttlebutt listeners. Thank you for joining us and for your continued support. This week, we bring another installment of our new series, Literary Lethality, to the scuttlebutt. In this series, we will be doing a deep dive into the Commandant’s Professional Reading List, exploring various titles and talking to different authors about some of the books on the list. Today, Michael Jerome Plunkett was kind enough come on and talk to us about Karl Marlantes’ novel, Matterhorn. Matterhorn is on the CPRL as part of the Leadership category, and Michael, as the creator of the PBA Abbate Book Club and host of the LitWar podcast, discusses the aspects of this novel that speak to leadership and decision making, some good and some bad, in life-or-death situations. We also discuss the origins of the novel, which actually started as a memoir written in the 70s, who the intended audience is, what Marlantes is trying to communicate with the book, and some of the takeaways for today’s service members. And more than anything, why Matterhorn deserves to be on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List.

Enjoy!

mca-marines.org/commandants-professional-reading-list-leadership/?pg=2

michaeljeromeplunkett.com

The post #234: Literary Lethality – Matterhorn with Michael Jerome Plunkett first appeared on Marine Corps Association.