Technology, Connection, and Hierarchies: My experience in the U.S. Marine Corps
In finishing Pressed for Time, I’m thinking about connectedness and how technology facilitates new ways of interacting, specifically how it has the potential to break down the barriers between professional and personal life.
Accountability is a major concern in the military in general and the Marines specifically. It’s important to know where your Marines are at any given time, and as such, cell phones have been an invaluable tool. The strictly authoritarian structure of the Marine Corps plays into this interaction, as well. A supervisor’s authority over their subordinates is nearly absolute, so refusing instruction is a luxury military personnel don’t have. A Gunnery Sergeant might not technically have the authority to order a Sergeant back to the office when they’re sitting at the dinner table, but for the Sergeant to refuse, they’d have to prove in the moment that the order is illegal or attempts to countermand a conflicting order by higher authority. It’s possible the Gunny might have to justify their actions to higher authority at a later date, but that doesn’t release the Sergeant from their legal responsibility to follow the orders of their superiors. There is the assumption that the order is legal and proper unless it’s immediately and demonstrably not. After all, Marines might be ordered to charge a dug in fire position, an order than almost certainly consigns some of them to their deaths, in the name of accomplishing the unit’s objective. Maintaining the discipline to obey the chain of command is considered a key facet of military life.
So if a Gunnery Sergeant orders a Corporal to give her his cell phone number, the Corporal is obligated to turn it over. There’s a rigorous debate to be had over whether the Corporal is obligated to use the phone he’s paid for for official business, but the de facto policy is he’d better pick up when Gunny calls.
This has contributed substantially to increased stress at certain levels of the military, predominately those who work closely with higher authority. An executive officer is now constantly available to their CO, a chief of staff is just a phone call away from their flag officer, and a platoon sergeant better be able to give First Sergeant their platoon’s accountability numbers right the hell now. It can be especially stressful when one of the communication links breaks, so a Major yells at a Captain who yells at a Lieutenant who frets to a Gunny who yells at a Sergeant who can’t get a Corporal to answer their phone. The entire weight of the bureaucracy can come crashing down on one head because a phone died, or was left somewhere unusual, or just wasn’t loud enough.
On the other hand, Marines spend much of their time sitting around waiting for orders to trickle down, and here smart phones show huge value. Rather than growing bored and wandering off to find something (stupid) to do, junior Marines sit where their NCOs can see them, happily browsing social media, playing games or reading. It’s also true that the fragile phone trees for reporting accountability of personnel have replaced unit formations, which would have required the entire unit to gather in one place, in flawless uniform, to be counted before being dismissed to liberty. Any given NCO or below is expected to show up to a battalion level formation at LEAST an hour before the formation ostensibly takes place, so the squad leaders can be sure everyone’s there when the platoon sergeants show up, the platoon sergeants can be sure everyone’s there when the Company Guns and 1st Sgts show up, so they can be sure the Company COs aren’t waiting on anyone and so on.
