THE PENTAGON — The Marine Corps’ latest sequel to Force Design 2030—Training and Education 2030—is aimed at overhauling the service’s instructional continuum to prepare Marines for 21st-century conflict. But first, it needs a Marine Corps that can read it.

“A warfighting capability is only as effective as the Marines employing it,” General David Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps, told reporters. “Tomorrow’s all-domain battlefield is filled with challenges that require cognitive overmatch as much as material superiority.”

“‘Training and Education 2030’ aims squarely at improving the cognitive dominance of the individual Marine, by teaching Marines to read at a 2nd-grade level, which would be a three-grade-level improvement over today,” Berger added.

Berger acknowledged that this would be an uphill battle. “We always joke about how Marines read at a third-grade level, but now, with hard work, we might get close. The problems of the 21st century demand more of our Marines, and Sergeant Major Black and I think ‘Training and Education 2030’ will get us there.”