thedrifter
11-06-06, 08:00 PM
Marines Want Another Infantry Regiment
InsideDefense.com NewsStand | Jason Sherman | November 06, 2006
Prompted last month by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to consider ways to make more personnel available for duty in Iraq, the Marine Corps is advancing a proposal to increase its overall size by 3,000 to 5,000 Marines -- a boost service officials say could allow for the reconstitution of key units abolished during the post-Cold War drawdown.
Pentagon officials familiar with the Marine Corps move to create a new regimental combat team say it would require increasing the service’s budget, which needs the blessing of Rumsfeld and, possibly, the White House. The proposal, these sources said, is being considered as part of the Pentagon’s process of constructing a fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, which is set to be finalized by the end of December.
If the end-strength increase is approved and funded, the Marine Corps could reconstitute three battalions that it disbanded during the 1990s and restore the force to three full divisions, service officials said.
The Pentagon’s 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, Rumsfeld’s blueprint for the future of the military, calls for a corps of 175,000 Marines. The service’s fiscal year 2007 base budget pays for a force of this size. In addition, Congress has granted the service temporary authority to increase its size by 4,000 Marines to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; these additional Marines are funded through emergency supplemental appropriations and considered temporary.
What the Marine Corps is now proposing, defense officials say, is increasing the size of the force funded in the base budget to approximately 180,000 Marines. This reflects a force size that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, has argued for this year. Hagee, who publicly broke ranks with Rumsfeld over the issue, is stepping down this month; Gen. James Conway is scheduled to become the next commandant on Nov. 13.
The bid for an additional infantry regiment follows inquiries about available forces made last month by Rumsfeld and Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary.
Following Oct. 11 high-level meetings in the Pentagon with Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Rumsfeld dashed off a “snowflake” memo asking what options might be available to produce additional Marine units, according to sources with knowledge of the closely held document.
“This is the result of a snowflake that asked the Marines: ‘How fast can you raise an infantry regiment?’” said a Pentagon official familiar with the effort.
Marine Corps sources say that if Rumsfeld and the White House approve funding to grow the force, the service would need many months to get new Marines ready to deploy.
In an Oct. 18 town hall meeting at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., Rumsfeld discussed options he was considering to increase troop levels, both in the Army and the Marine Corps.
“We think it’s going to be easier to possibly create another regimental combat team in the Marines more rapidly than it would be to constitute an additional brigade combat team in the Army,” Rumsfeld said.
Following the Marine Corps’ last force structure review in 2003, the Pentagon, in its Quadrennial Defense Review earlier this year, outlined a policy for increasing the military’s ability to conduct irregular warfare operations, which in Iraq and Afghanistan requires many ground forces. In February, as part of an effort to expand the ranks of special operations forces, the service established the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, which is expected eventually to include 2,600 Marines. These factors are key exhibits in recent Marine Corps leadership arguments for the need to increase the size of the force, service officials said.
Ellie
InsideDefense.com NewsStand | Jason Sherman | November 06, 2006
Prompted last month by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to consider ways to make more personnel available for duty in Iraq, the Marine Corps is advancing a proposal to increase its overall size by 3,000 to 5,000 Marines -- a boost service officials say could allow for the reconstitution of key units abolished during the post-Cold War drawdown.
Pentagon officials familiar with the Marine Corps move to create a new regimental combat team say it would require increasing the service’s budget, which needs the blessing of Rumsfeld and, possibly, the White House. The proposal, these sources said, is being considered as part of the Pentagon’s process of constructing a fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, which is set to be finalized by the end of December.
If the end-strength increase is approved and funded, the Marine Corps could reconstitute three battalions that it disbanded during the 1990s and restore the force to three full divisions, service officials said.
The Pentagon’s 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, Rumsfeld’s blueprint for the future of the military, calls for a corps of 175,000 Marines. The service’s fiscal year 2007 base budget pays for a force of this size. In addition, Congress has granted the service temporary authority to increase its size by 4,000 Marines to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; these additional Marines are funded through emergency supplemental appropriations and considered temporary.
What the Marine Corps is now proposing, defense officials say, is increasing the size of the force funded in the base budget to approximately 180,000 Marines. This reflects a force size that Gen. Michael Hagee, the Marine Corps commandant, has argued for this year. Hagee, who publicly broke ranks with Rumsfeld over the issue, is stepping down this month; Gen. James Conway is scheduled to become the next commandant on Nov. 13.
The bid for an additional infantry regiment follows inquiries about available forces made last month by Rumsfeld and Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary.
Following Oct. 11 high-level meetings in the Pentagon with Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Rumsfeld dashed off a “snowflake” memo asking what options might be available to produce additional Marine units, according to sources with knowledge of the closely held document.
“This is the result of a snowflake that asked the Marines: ‘How fast can you raise an infantry regiment?’” said a Pentagon official familiar with the effort.
Marine Corps sources say that if Rumsfeld and the White House approve funding to grow the force, the service would need many months to get new Marines ready to deploy.
In an Oct. 18 town hall meeting at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., Rumsfeld discussed options he was considering to increase troop levels, both in the Army and the Marine Corps.
“We think it’s going to be easier to possibly create another regimental combat team in the Marines more rapidly than it would be to constitute an additional brigade combat team in the Army,” Rumsfeld said.
Following the Marine Corps’ last force structure review in 2003, the Pentagon, in its Quadrennial Defense Review earlier this year, outlined a policy for increasing the military’s ability to conduct irregular warfare operations, which in Iraq and Afghanistan requires many ground forces. In February, as part of an effort to expand the ranks of special operations forces, the service established the Marine Corps Special Operations Command, which is expected eventually to include 2,600 Marines. These factors are key exhibits in recent Marine Corps leadership arguments for the need to increase the size of the force, service officials said.
Ellie