The Marine Corps mnemonic JJ DID TIE BUCKLE signifying the 14 characteristics of an ideal leader is now JJ DID TIE BUCKLEE following the Corps’ decision to add a 15th trait. (U.S. Marine Corps)
Marines will no longer buckle down to learn the list of the service’s leadership traits, as an “E” for empathy was added at the end of the famous phrase used to commit them to memory.
The Marine Corps mnemonic JJ DID TIE BUCKLE signifying the 14 characteristics of an ideal leader is now JJ DID TIE BUCKLEE following the Corps’ decision to add a 15th trait.
Announced in mid-August, the change was published in two Marine Corps materials, Sustaining the Transformation and Leading Marines.
The addition of empathy as a leadership trait for the Corps was originally reported by Task & Purpose.
It joins justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, decisiveness, tact, integrity, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and endurance.
The list of traits was originally adopted from an Army leadership doctrine in 1948 and updated through the years to include additional traits that aligned with the Corps’ values, according to the Marine Corps University Research Lab.
Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Thomas Brucia, an instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, observes new Marines on Oct. 3, 2024. (Jesse Carter-Powell/U.S. Marine Corps)
Many Marines’ introduction to them came after they stepped on the yellow footprints at recruiting depots in Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego.
“Empathy helps bridge differences, promotes trust and can defuse conflicts,” Staff Sgt. Logan Bohmann, a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, told Stars and Stripes on Sunday.
Recruits have the leadership traits drilled into them from the beginning of boot camp, and the familiar JJ DID TIE BUCKLE ditty the trainees hear from drill instructors has been updated accordingly.
Based on the nature of their role in recruit training, drill instructors tend to keep empathy levels to a minimum.
They “are absolutely supposed to be the epitome of what a Marine looks like and acts like,” Bohmann said. “Empathy isn’t necessarily a trait that drill instructors are going to ever show.”
A U.S. Marine Corps drill instructor with Charlie Company guides recruits through dynamic warmups before a physical training session at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in California on Oct. 1, 2024. (Sarah Grawcock/U.S. Marine Corps)
But senior drill instructors might show “a different level” of it, he added.
According to the Leading Marines document published Aug. 13, the trait is defined as “having a genuine interest in the lives of your Marines, the challenges they face and their overall well-being.”
A Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Joshua Benson, told Task & Purpose that the addition of empathy as a 15th leadership trait is not groundbreaking.
“Putting words like teamwork, empathy and even love in these publications might seem revolutionary, but they are things Marines have been doing for one another for 249 years. They have always been part of the Marine Corps and our culture,” Benson was quoted as saying.
Reaction to the change as expressed in many comments on the r/USMC Reddit thread made that assertion seem disputable, though.
“I will be sure to remind gunny about the E for Empathy being added to the leadership traits when he denies me going to medical for a real issue,” one user wrote.
U.S. Marine Corps Col. Matthew Palma congratulates his son, Pvt. Brendan Palma, after he receives his Eagle, Globe and Anchor on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Nov. 21, 2023. (Alexandra Earl/U.S. Marine Corps)
