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thedrifter
01-19-07, 03:24 PM
Conway: ‘Every Marine Into the Fight’

New policy means those who have not deployed will be sent to Iraq
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 19, 2007 14:14:11 EST

The Corps’ 66,000 leathernecks who have not yet deployed to Iraq — more than one-third of the active-duty force — are now on-deck for combat, according to a new policy issued by the Corps’ top commander Jan. 19.

The Corps will immediately begin reviewing personnel assignments with the intent of sending all Marines into Iraq, Commandant Gen. James Conway told commanders in an all-Marine message titled “Every Marine Into the Fight.” Under Conway’s plan, Marines without Iraq experience could be reassigned to new units. Conway also urged commanders to support Marine requests to go into combat.

“Frequent deployments and short dwell periods have been the norm,” Conway said in the AlMar. “When they join our Corps, Marines expect to train, deploy and fight. That’s who we are. That’s what we do. And we must allow every Marine that opportunity.”

According to Defense Department data, there were about 218,000 total active-duty Marine deployments to Afghanistan or Iraq as of Sept. 30. Of those deployments, less than half have deployed only once, and about 56,000 deployed twice or more.

“As our Corps postures for the long war, and in order to help meet the challenges of frequent deployments, I want our Corps’ leadership to initiate policies to ensure all Marines, first-termers and career Marines alike, are provided the ability to deploy to a combat zone,” Conway said.

Conway told Marines in Ramadi in late December that about 37 percent of the Corps, or about 66,000 out of about 175,000 permanent troops, had not yet been into Iraq, an issue he said could hurt justification for force expansion plans. Another 5,000 troops are being funded temporarily, inflating the current end strength to 180,000 Marines.

The Bush administration has called for increasing the Corps’ end strength to 202,000 Marines in five years.

“If we’re going to grow the force on the one hand, we’ve got to be able to justify it to the bean counters ... how we have 66,000 Marines that haven’t been to Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said during the Dec. 26 town hall meeting with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines.

About half of those who have not yet deployed are potentially slated for future Iraq deployments, meaning this new policy would target the remaining 33,000.

In the message, Conway tasked manpower officials with reassigning Marines who “have yet to deploy to rotational units, but limit the impact on unit cohesion.”

Also, officials are to authorize “time-on-station” waivers to “effectively redistribute Marines affected by this guidance.”

Officials will also need to review deployment policies to Japan, where Marines deploy as part of the Unit Deployment Program.

He told unit commanders to identify Marines in their units who haven’t deployed and facilitate their rotation into the war zone, and when they receive requests to deploy, support those requests.

Conway said he believes many leathernecks want to go into combat but are denied. This new policy would give relief to Marines who have had a more constant combat tempo, some on their third and fourth deployments, he told the Marines in Ramadi. That battalion’s deployment has since been extended as part of President Bush’s plan to build up troops levels in Iraq in order decrease insurgent attacks in Anbar province.

“The main intent is to allow all Marines the opportunity in getting to the fight and increase the equity in how we’re deploying folks,” said Conway spokesman Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson.

It also will expand the combat experience base for the Corps, he said.

The new policy, which Johnson said would affect only active-duty troops, was based directly on the feedback Conway heard during recent town hall meetings with Marines who complained that they weren’t able to deploy.

“It brought it to the surface. It was a constant theme,” Johnson said. “Marines want to go. The ones who’ve been turned down, they’re not happy about it.”

http://www.marinetimes.com/xml/news/2007/01/mcalmarweb070119/070119_conway2_story_287.jpg

Marine Corps
Commandant Gen. James Conway urged commanders to support Marine requests to go into combat.

drumcorpssnare
01-19-07, 03:38 PM
OORAHHH!!! I wish they could send every Marine in the world (18yrs-100yrs old)...all of 'em, to get the job done.
Give me a uniform and a rifle! I'll go.

SEMPER FI and God Bless all of our Marines!
drumcorpssnare:usmc:

thedrifter
01-19-07, 07:36 PM
Marine Corps will ask thousands to come back

By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 19, 2007 16:15:36 EST

The Marine Corps plans to ask up to 100,000 former Marines released from the ranks since September 2001 whether they would like to come back.

Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday, Lt. Gen. Emerson Gardner, the Corps’ deputy commandant for programs and resources, said many of those Marines had either hinted that they’d like to have re-enlisted at the time they got out or were told outright that no slots were available in which they could re-enlist.

“In the past, we’ve had a number of people who have desired to re-enlist in a particular job specialty, and, unfortunately, there is not enough room in the Marine Corps to keep them on, so we have released them from active duty,” Gardner said.

“But anecdotally, we’re all familiar with people that have gotten out of the Marine Corps, and you talk to them a year or two later and they say, ‘You know, if I had to do it over again, I sure would like to have stayed,’ ” Gardner said.

“We’re going to offer them that opportunity. Our commandant will make a call to arms and see what number of those 100,000 would be willing to come back on active duty,” Gardner said.

He did not detail how those Marines would be notified or asked to come back, but he indicated that given the Corps’ intention to grow by more than 20,000 Marines over the next five years, the initiative could come in handy.

The Corps has about 180,000 Marines, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last week that it would grow by about 22,000 people at a rate of about 5,000 per year to a total end strength of 202,000 by 2012.

The Army, which stands at about 507,000 soldiers, will grow to about 547,000 over the next five years, or by about 8,000 per year.

Ellie

capmarine
01-19-07, 08:13 PM
can you only imagine the experience that the Corps will have for the next 50 years what with all these young Marines and older Marines getting combat experience.i wonder if a 58 yrs old Marine could volunteer at MCRDSD;work on a computer anything?

yellowwing
01-19-07, 08:59 PM
I know that there will be no shortage of Gung Ho devil pups to increase our Marine Corps ranks to a 4,000 more a year.

Can the Army really make their 8,000 more a year quota?

10thzodiac
01-19-07, 09:27 PM
I'm not as good as I once was, but good once as I was. Maybe I can be a suicider bomber or something (our-side) LOL

Do we have 72 virgins too http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/07.gif

yellowwing
01-19-07, 09:34 PM
Nope, just a twelve pack and a LBFM. But good luck with that! :D

jinelson
01-19-07, 09:40 PM
10thzodiac are you like volunteering?

Jim :D :)

greensideout
01-19-07, 09:43 PM
They are getting desperate---soon the draft?

SkilletsUSMC
01-19-07, 10:41 PM
I was at this speech today. They had damn near the whole 1st MARDIV minus 7th Marines, and every Mainside POG, and SOI devil dog too. I wish I had pictures... It was hands down the biggest formation I have ever seen.

greensideout
01-19-07, 10:49 PM
And the General said, "Every swinging dick in the Corps is going to serve in combat." And the reaction and conversation was.....?

SkilletsUSMC
01-19-07, 11:03 PM
And the General said, "Every swinging dick in the Corps is going to serve in combat." And the reaction and conversation was.....Oh ****...no more fleet dodging?

greensideout
01-19-07, 11:27 PM
[/SIZE]


Lmao---But what was it really? Did the Marines there like the idea?

FistFu68
01-20-07, 12:06 AM
:evilgrin: I WILL MAKE A (HALO)JUMP INTO,TEHERAN IRAN;ONLY IF ARMED WITH MY FAVORITE WEAPON~(MK-54-SADM)I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR MY COUNTRY!!!SEMPER~FIDELIS:iwo: :yes:

SkilletsUSMC
01-20-07, 12:16 AM
Lmao---But what was it really? Did the Marines there like the idea?

The Vast Majority of Marines that I know dont really apply because they have allready been there, but I think its pretty cool. I think it should be easier to cross deck to the Grunts if you so choose, and I think the new CMCs policy will make that happen.

A Marine asked if the new surge in Iraq would loosen ROEs and he said that ROEs have been the same since OIF1 and would continue to be the same. He re-enforced the right of a Marine to engage if he feels threatened. Im not sure if that really awnsered the question.

One of the things that didnt go over so well was a question about tatoos. A Marine asked him if the policy about not allowing tatoos below the sleeve would change, and he and the SGTMAJMC both said that it is "un-professional" because its a persoanl apearance issue, and that the Marine Corps frowns on tatoos. I dont have any, but I think its lame that some Marines are getting flak for having EGA tats on their forearms.

Reading the threads on leatherneck, I was pretty familiar with everything he said. There was nothing groundbreaking.

10thzodiac
01-20-07, 04:44 AM
10thzodiac are you like volunteering?

Jim :D :)

I think our present Commander in Chief bests expresses my sentiments about volunteerism Viet-Iraq better than I ever could, quote:

"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4114162/

Fool me once audio clip: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/multimedia/bushism_fool_me_once.mp3

thedrifter
01-20-07, 07:12 AM
Commandant wants ‘every Marine in the fight’

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, January 20, 2007

ARLINGON, Va. — The Marine Corps wants troops who haven’t been to combat yet to help ease the burden of Marines who have deployed several times.

In a Corps-wide message released Friday, Commandant Gen. James Conway said he wants officials to ensure “all Marines, first-termers and career Marines alike, are provided the ability to deploy to a combat zone.”

Recently, Conway told Marines in Ramadi that about 66,000 Marines in the Corps have yet to see combat.

“Let’s get everybody to the fight,” he said. “That’s what they joined the Marine Corps for, OK? And I don’t think it’s that those people don’t want to go; I think it’s by and large that they’re being told they can’t.”

The “every Marine into the fight” message calls for commanders to identify all Marines who have not yet deployed and work toward reassigning them to units headed downrange, provided those moves do not hurt exisitng “unit cohesion.”

It also calls for a review of current personnel policies, to ensure maximum flexibility in Marines’ assignments.

Conway has said he wants to give Marines two months off for every one month deployed, and that could require increasing the size of the Corps. Defense officials announced Friday plans to add 3,000 Marines to the Corps’ active-duty end strength by October and another 18,000 over the next five years.

To help increase the ranks, the Corps has lifted quotas on how many Marines approaching their first re-enlistment can continue with the Corps, said Maj. Jerry R. Morgan, of Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Each Military Occupational Specialty has a number of “boat spaces,” or the number of first-term Marines it is allocated. Once the boat spaces fill up, first-term Marines must move to another MOS or leave the Corps.

The elimination of boat spaces affects 14,000 first-term Marines who are approaching their first re-enlistment this fiscal year, Morgan said.

The move is temporary until “the manpower requirement is further specified,” he said.

Guard, reserves would see more deployment under new rules


ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Department will rely more on National Guard and Reserve troops to help give active-duty servicemembers more time between deployments, defense officials said Friday.

“Today, most active units are deploying for one year, returning home for one year, then redeploying,” according to a memo signed Friday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. “Just as we are asking the active forces to do more in this time of national need, so we must ask more of our Reserve components.”

Toward that end, troops in the Guard and Reserves can now expect to deploy more than once during their careers, according to Dr. David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

In a press briefing with reporters on Friday, Chu announced troops in the Guard and Reserves will be mobilized for a total of 12 continuous months, compared with 18 months or longer now.

The change will require maintaining Reserve component units at a higher level of readiness before they deploy, said Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes. That way, units will not have to train for six months before heading downrange.

“The Army is going to work collectively with the Reserve, the Army Guard and the Army Reserve, to ensure that what we do in the pre-mobilization training period achieves a higher level of proficiency,” Speakes said.

Chu noted that Reserve component troops typically train about 39 days per year, and the Defense Department will work to make sure they use those days more effectively.

“The Army is not going to send a unit into a combat zone or into any kind of a deployment without meeting requirements for both individual and unit certification,” Speakes said.

The Defense Department plans to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps by a total of 61,000 troops over the next five years, officials said.

-- Jeff Schogol



Ellie