I entered the spacious lobby of the National Museum of the US Marine Corps, and Sargent Major Lonnie Martin warmly welcomed me to his tour group, in which he enthusiastically narrated fascinating stories about his extraordinary service, mostly spent on the front lines.
One particular narrative about pirates cemented my understanding of how storytelling is used to develop the warrior
mindset so that Marines can improvise, adapt and overcome the enemy.
Lonnie said that a while ago, when piracy was uncommon, a small section of a Marine Expeditionary Unit
was deployed to assault and occupy a vessel held by enemy combatants. When the officer-in-charge was given the
assault objective, a story popped into his mind.
