Over the past thirty plus years the U.S. Marines have been devolving into a second army. This has created exactly the kind of redundant capability that is not only far too common within the U.S. armed forces, but also greatly undermines national security by taking the U.S. Marines away from its core historical mission.
Thankfully, that era appears to be closing. The Marines are now moving back to being an elite, mobile, hard-hitting force of amphibious light infantry. In turn they are once again embracing the corresponding mission set in which they historically have excelled.
In April of 1915 soldiers from the British Army and Commonwealth, including the Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, and French Army and Empire, landed on the Gallipoli penninsula in an effort to open the route to Russia and seize Constantinople. There they faced Turkish troops from the Ottoman Empire in a brutal campaign fought in rugged terrain featuring extensive trench systems separated at certain points by as few as 10 to 20 yards. An ongoing archaeological survey has uncovered not only artificacts from ths First World War battle, but also has led to a greater understanding of how the men
