thedrifter
03-07-06, 02:12 PM
March 13, 2006
More mids go Marine than ever
Corps top choice for grads after spec war, pilot
By Andrew Scutro
Times staff writer
The first class of midshipmen to apply to the Naval Academy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has more seniors going Marine than ever.
Of the 992 graduates, 209 — a little more than 21 percent of the class — will go green, a larger proportion than classes of just a few years ago. The number of Marine billets had been kept at one-sixth of the graduating class for years under a 1993 agreement between Marine and Navy personnel officials.
That changed after 2003, when 162 selected a Marine career. A spike in midshipmen asking to go Marine prompted officials to add 30 green billets to the class of 2004, when 190 midshipmen became Marines. Last year, 207 headed for the Corps.
Most of the midshipmen are staying Navy. Members of the class of 2006 have known their community assignments since November. On Feb. 24, they chose ships and training schools for their first stops after graduation May 26.
Besides the highly selective special warfare community, which is taking 21 mids from the class of 2006, the two most sought-after billets this year are pilot and Marine, according to midshipmen interviewed Feb. 28 at the academy.
As of March 3, academy officials said they didn’t know how many mids put Marine as their first choice.
For midshipman Jake Dove, the Marine option was a change from his original idea of Navy career.
“Coming into the academy, I thought I wanted to fly for the Navy, and I tried to keep an open mind with all the other communities,” he said. But even after spending some time in the fleet, he said, “The Marine Corps is what I was meant to do. Leading Marines on the ground is just an awesome leadership responsibility. And I’m excited for it.”
Dove, who wants infantry, and fellow mid Joe Mihoces attended the “Leatherneck” program at Quantico, Va, in their second class summer.
The Leatherneck program is a four-week glimpse of the six-month Marine officer training program, The Basic School.
Midshipmen train in small-unit tactics, martial arts, marksmanship, physical training and other Marine skills.
It sold Mihoces, who wants to be an aviator.
“You’re evaluating the Marines and they are evaluating you,” Mihoces said. “I was really a fence-sitter coming into service selection, but going down to Leatherneck really solidified my decision to go Marine.”
The increase in the number of Marine officers from the academy has been steady in recent years.
In 1998, then-Marine Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak asked for more officers from the academy.
At the time, classes averaged 16.67 percent going Marine, a limit set by Marine manpower and Navy personnel officials.
Krulak asked for 18 percent of the class in 1999 and 24 percent in years thereafter. He didn’t get as many as he wanted, but this year’s 21.06 percent is closer to his goal. Only 2005 had a higher percentage, at 21.2 percent.
Andrew Scutro covers the Navy.
Ellie
More mids go Marine than ever
Corps top choice for grads after spec war, pilot
By Andrew Scutro
Times staff writer
The first class of midshipmen to apply to the Naval Academy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has more seniors going Marine than ever.
Of the 992 graduates, 209 — a little more than 21 percent of the class — will go green, a larger proportion than classes of just a few years ago. The number of Marine billets had been kept at one-sixth of the graduating class for years under a 1993 agreement between Marine and Navy personnel officials.
That changed after 2003, when 162 selected a Marine career. A spike in midshipmen asking to go Marine prompted officials to add 30 green billets to the class of 2004, when 190 midshipmen became Marines. Last year, 207 headed for the Corps.
Most of the midshipmen are staying Navy. Members of the class of 2006 have known their community assignments since November. On Feb. 24, they chose ships and training schools for their first stops after graduation May 26.
Besides the highly selective special warfare community, which is taking 21 mids from the class of 2006, the two most sought-after billets this year are pilot and Marine, according to midshipmen interviewed Feb. 28 at the academy.
As of March 3, academy officials said they didn’t know how many mids put Marine as their first choice.
For midshipman Jake Dove, the Marine option was a change from his original idea of Navy career.
“Coming into the academy, I thought I wanted to fly for the Navy, and I tried to keep an open mind with all the other communities,” he said. But even after spending some time in the fleet, he said, “The Marine Corps is what I was meant to do. Leading Marines on the ground is just an awesome leadership responsibility. And I’m excited for it.”
Dove, who wants infantry, and fellow mid Joe Mihoces attended the “Leatherneck” program at Quantico, Va, in their second class summer.
The Leatherneck program is a four-week glimpse of the six-month Marine officer training program, The Basic School.
Midshipmen train in small-unit tactics, martial arts, marksmanship, physical training and other Marine skills.
It sold Mihoces, who wants to be an aviator.
“You’re evaluating the Marines and they are evaluating you,” Mihoces said. “I was really a fence-sitter coming into service selection, but going down to Leatherneck really solidified my decision to go Marine.”
The increase in the number of Marine officers from the academy has been steady in recent years.
In 1998, then-Marine Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak asked for more officers from the academy.
At the time, classes averaged 16.67 percent going Marine, a limit set by Marine manpower and Navy personnel officials.
Krulak asked for 18 percent of the class in 1999 and 24 percent in years thereafter. He didn’t get as many as he wanted, but this year’s 21.06 percent is closer to his goal. Only 2005 had a higher percentage, at 21.2 percent.
Andrew Scutro covers the Navy.
Ellie