In Krulak's example, Marines may be required to conduct full-scale military action, peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid within the space of three contiguous city blocks.
The latter condition caused Krulak to invoke what he called "strategic corporals"; low-level unit leaders able to take independent action and make major decisions.
[2] The strategic corporal is the notion that leadership in complex, rapidly evolving mission environments devolves lower and lower down the chain of command to better exploit time-critical information into the decision making process, ultimately landing on the corporal, the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer, typically commanding a fire team of 4 individuals or a squad of 12 individuals (three fireteams).
[citation needed] The U.S. Army has used the Strategic Corporal term for their plan to equip ordinary squad leaders with advanced laser rangefinders to plot artillery fire.
[4] The need to conduct operations in this situation has significantly emphasised the importance of low level tactical leaders and led to the term strategic corporal being devised.