thedrifter
12-01-06, 03:38 PM
December 01, 2006
New initiatives seek more Reserve officers
Marines could get $10,000 for crossing over
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
You might be making the gunny’s coffee and emptying his trash for now, but you’ve got a serious shot at outranking him by next year.
The Marine Corps Reserve needs lieutenants, badly. And whether you’re active duty or Reserve, you’ve never had a better chance at getting a commission than you do right now.
Reserve officials hope broad changes to the Corps’ standing policy on commissioning reservists, as well as the addition of two brand-new commissioning programs, will reverse a long-standing trend that has some majors and senior captains holding the same billets in their Reserve unit that are staffed by the Corps’ lieutenants on active duty.
Under the previous policies, the only way to get second lieutenants in a drilling Reserve unit was to commission an enlisted college graduate already serving there. But the Reserve enlisted commissioning program gets only about 15 applications a year from enlisted Marines, said Col. John Nicholson, head of the Corps’ personnel plans and policy branch. The rest of the Reserve’s officers come from the active-duty forces after at least four years of service.
Nicholson said that over the next year, through policies that have just been put into effect, the Corps hopes to grow the number of Reserve second lieutenants to between 75 and 100 by including Marines of various education levels who have been in uniform in either component as little as 12 months.
The Corps needs more drilling second lieutenants than it normally gets through commissioning only the Reserve’s enlisted graduates, so it’s giving active-duty Marines a chance to cross over. The service is also commissioning nongraduates from both components and combing colleges for civilians it can put in the drilling Reserve pipeline.
It’s not quite a free-for-all, though. The emphasis is still on quality, not quantity, so “that’s not to say that if we don’t get this number of quality candidates we failed,” Nicholson said.
• Active, with a bachelor’s. Enlisted Marines who already have a degree can apply for a commission with the Reserve Enlisted Commissioning Program, which has been around for “quite a while” but has recently undergone a few changes, Nicholson said.
“The major change we made was to open it up to active-component Marines,” he said.
Before, you had to be a Reserve Marine with a degree to get it.
The Corps also dropped the minimum time in service from three years to one, meaning even some senior privates first class are now eligible. The same time-in-service requirement applies to enlisted Marines who seek a commission through the Corps’ new Reserve Meritorious Commissioning Program.
• Some college. Still working on that bachelor’s degree? No problem. The Corps now has a Reserve MCP that will get you — regardless of whether you’re active-duty or Reserve — to Officer Candidates School without a bachelor’s if you’ve completed an associate degree or have 75 credit hours of college.
Active-duty Marines are eligible to apply for a commission through this program even if they’re slated to transition into the Individual Ready Reserve in the near future.
For Marines already in the IRR, many of whom already attend college and collect GI Bill benefits, the Reserve MCP offers a higher-paying way to stay associated with the Corps after hanging up their uniform. If you’ve promised yourself you’d only go back as an officer, why wait? But there’s a catch.
“The bottom line is that they need their bachelor’s before they get promoted to captain,” Nicholson said.
• Civilians. Recruiting college seniors straight into the Selected Marine Corps Reserve has never been done. But the Reserve Officer Candidates Course Program aims to do just that.
Nicholson said Reserve officials are working closely with Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s officer selection officers to target applicants in the same geographical regions where Reserve units need second lieutenants most.
“They’re out looking right now,” Nicholson said.
Cash, other incentives
In order to encourage active officers to affiliate with drilling Reserve units after leaving active duty, the Corps announced earlier this year a $10,000 cash bonus for officers to cross over, as well as a plan to defer combat deployments two years for all Marines who returned from combat within their last year on active duty.
Nicholson said these policies apply to the Corps’ Reserve commissioning initiatives, as well.
Active and Reserve Marines selected for a commission through each of these programs will be sent to Officer Candidates School, The Basic School, their military occupational specialty training, then directly to a drilling Reserve unit unless they volunteer for an optional year of active duty “to allow a second lieutenant to develop some MOS credibility,” Nicholson said.
For the active-duty force, Marine officers are assigned an MOS in The Basic School based on their performance there and on the needs of the Corps. But since the main focus of the Corps’ new Reserve lieutenant initiative is to commission enlisted Marines, “There would be a natural tendency to keep them in their skill sets,” Nicholson said.
There is also the possibility of parlaying a Reserve commission into an active-duty assignment. Marines who are commissioned through these programs incur a four-year obligation to a drilling Reserve unit. After that, they can put in a package for augmentation to the active forces, Nicholson said. h
Ellie
New initiatives seek more Reserve officers
Marines could get $10,000 for crossing over
By John Hoellwarth
Staff writer
You might be making the gunny’s coffee and emptying his trash for now, but you’ve got a serious shot at outranking him by next year.
The Marine Corps Reserve needs lieutenants, badly. And whether you’re active duty or Reserve, you’ve never had a better chance at getting a commission than you do right now.
Reserve officials hope broad changes to the Corps’ standing policy on commissioning reservists, as well as the addition of two brand-new commissioning programs, will reverse a long-standing trend that has some majors and senior captains holding the same billets in their Reserve unit that are staffed by the Corps’ lieutenants on active duty.
Under the previous policies, the only way to get second lieutenants in a drilling Reserve unit was to commission an enlisted college graduate already serving there. But the Reserve enlisted commissioning program gets only about 15 applications a year from enlisted Marines, said Col. John Nicholson, head of the Corps’ personnel plans and policy branch. The rest of the Reserve’s officers come from the active-duty forces after at least four years of service.
Nicholson said that over the next year, through policies that have just been put into effect, the Corps hopes to grow the number of Reserve second lieutenants to between 75 and 100 by including Marines of various education levels who have been in uniform in either component as little as 12 months.
The Corps needs more drilling second lieutenants than it normally gets through commissioning only the Reserve’s enlisted graduates, so it’s giving active-duty Marines a chance to cross over. The service is also commissioning nongraduates from both components and combing colleges for civilians it can put in the drilling Reserve pipeline.
It’s not quite a free-for-all, though. The emphasis is still on quality, not quantity, so “that’s not to say that if we don’t get this number of quality candidates we failed,” Nicholson said.
• Active, with a bachelor’s. Enlisted Marines who already have a degree can apply for a commission with the Reserve Enlisted Commissioning Program, which has been around for “quite a while” but has recently undergone a few changes, Nicholson said.
“The major change we made was to open it up to active-component Marines,” he said.
Before, you had to be a Reserve Marine with a degree to get it.
The Corps also dropped the minimum time in service from three years to one, meaning even some senior privates first class are now eligible. The same time-in-service requirement applies to enlisted Marines who seek a commission through the Corps’ new Reserve Meritorious Commissioning Program.
• Some college. Still working on that bachelor’s degree? No problem. The Corps now has a Reserve MCP that will get you — regardless of whether you’re active-duty or Reserve — to Officer Candidates School without a bachelor’s if you’ve completed an associate degree or have 75 credit hours of college.
Active-duty Marines are eligible to apply for a commission through this program even if they’re slated to transition into the Individual Ready Reserve in the near future.
For Marines already in the IRR, many of whom already attend college and collect GI Bill benefits, the Reserve MCP offers a higher-paying way to stay associated with the Corps after hanging up their uniform. If you’ve promised yourself you’d only go back as an officer, why wait? But there’s a catch.
“The bottom line is that they need their bachelor’s before they get promoted to captain,” Nicholson said.
• Civilians. Recruiting college seniors straight into the Selected Marine Corps Reserve has never been done. But the Reserve Officer Candidates Course Program aims to do just that.
Nicholson said Reserve officials are working closely with Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s officer selection officers to target applicants in the same geographical regions where Reserve units need second lieutenants most.
“They’re out looking right now,” Nicholson said.
Cash, other incentives
In order to encourage active officers to affiliate with drilling Reserve units after leaving active duty, the Corps announced earlier this year a $10,000 cash bonus for officers to cross over, as well as a plan to defer combat deployments two years for all Marines who returned from combat within their last year on active duty.
Nicholson said these policies apply to the Corps’ Reserve commissioning initiatives, as well.
Active and Reserve Marines selected for a commission through each of these programs will be sent to Officer Candidates School, The Basic School, their military occupational specialty training, then directly to a drilling Reserve unit unless they volunteer for an optional year of active duty “to allow a second lieutenant to develop some MOS credibility,” Nicholson said.
For the active-duty force, Marine officers are assigned an MOS in The Basic School based on their performance there and on the needs of the Corps. But since the main focus of the Corps’ new Reserve lieutenant initiative is to commission enlisted Marines, “There would be a natural tendency to keep them in their skill sets,” Nicholson said.
There is also the possibility of parlaying a Reserve commission into an active-duty assignment. Marines who are commissioned through these programs incur a four-year obligation to a drilling Reserve unit. After that, they can put in a package for augmentation to the active forces, Nicholson said. h
Ellie