Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point

Lt. Col. Mark Elfers, executive officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, received the 2nd place 2012 Maj. Gen. Harold W. Chase Essay Contest Award from the Marine Corps Gazette Dec. 10 at Cherry Point.

Maj. Gen. Glenn M. Walters, commanding general of 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, presented the award to Elfers..

The essay, “Don’t Accomplish Your Plan; Accomplish Your Mission,” appears in the December issue of the Marine Corps Gazette.

“You wrote about planning and being an out of the box thinker, and I know that is true because you drove me nuts when you were my planner,” said Walters. Elfers served under Walters in Afghanistan in 2011 as a future operations officer with 2nd MAW (Forward).

The Marine Corps Gazette editorial board wrote that Elfers’ piece, “… serves well the objectives of the contest by encouraging professional dialogue and challenging conventional wisdom in the U.S. Marine Corps.”