thedrifter
02-06-07, 08:33 AM
Command OK is the first step in volunteering for Iraq
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : February 12, 2007
The commandant wants every Marine to go to Iraq, but taking shortcuts to get there could land you in hot water, manpower officials said.
A week after Commandant Gen. James Conway’s all-Marine message let slip the garrisoned dogs of war, manpower officials released a Corps-wide message detailing how individual Marines could get themselves into the fray by volunteering for an individual augment billet.
Response to that message was immediate and enthusiastic, maybe too enthusiastic, said Sgt. Michael Critchlow, the admin clerk at the receiving end of enlisted Marines’ IA billet requests.
Critchlow’s e-mail inbox has been full every morning since the message went out Jan. 24, he said, and he gets phone calls every 10 minutes from Marines who haven’t yet sought their command’s approval by submitting the required administrative action form up the chain.
That’s step No. 1, he said, and Marines ignore it at their own peril. Getting some trigger time “is not serious enough to lose rank over,” Critchlow said. “You can e-mail me up and down all day long saying you’re the best Marine in the universe, but if you don’t have an AA form saying your command approves, I can’t do anything for you.”
MarAdmin 49/07 called IA billets “one of the best opportunities for individual Marines to deploy” in support of combat operations and listed how they can be considered. But that message was canceled and republished without the listed information Jan. 30 after IA billet planners began receiving requests from Marines who hadn’t yet sought their command’s approval for temporary assignment to combat duty.
Taking the information used to locate the right billet for the right Marine off the message helps keep Marines from trying to skip the AA form and redirects them instead to manpower’s Web site for further guidance, said Maj. Randall Risher, IA officer planner.
Commands don’t get replacements for Marines who go forward on IA orders, Risher said, which is why commanders must ultimately decide which of their Marines must stay put and which can be spared to go get some. For colonels and lieutenant colonels, this means the endorsement of the first general officer in their chain, according to the revised message, MarAdmin 57/07.
Risher has open billets for Marines from corporal to colonel, he said, but the majority of available IA assignments are for field- grade and senior staff noncommissioned officers.
He suggested that junior officers and enlisted Marines contact their monitors before raising their hands for an IA billet, because it may be easier for them to get permanent-change-of-station orders to a deploying unit than to snag an IA billet.
Plus, if a Marine is “due to rotate soon anyway, we’re not going to interfere with that,” Risher said. “Going on IA does not take the place of PCS orders. We always coordinate with the monitors first to make sure the Marine isn’t slated for orders.”
Ellie
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : February 12, 2007
The commandant wants every Marine to go to Iraq, but taking shortcuts to get there could land you in hot water, manpower officials said.
A week after Commandant Gen. James Conway’s all-Marine message let slip the garrisoned dogs of war, manpower officials released a Corps-wide message detailing how individual Marines could get themselves into the fray by volunteering for an individual augment billet.
Response to that message was immediate and enthusiastic, maybe too enthusiastic, said Sgt. Michael Critchlow, the admin clerk at the receiving end of enlisted Marines’ IA billet requests.
Critchlow’s e-mail inbox has been full every morning since the message went out Jan. 24, he said, and he gets phone calls every 10 minutes from Marines who haven’t yet sought their command’s approval by submitting the required administrative action form up the chain.
That’s step No. 1, he said, and Marines ignore it at their own peril. Getting some trigger time “is not serious enough to lose rank over,” Critchlow said. “You can e-mail me up and down all day long saying you’re the best Marine in the universe, but if you don’t have an AA form saying your command approves, I can’t do anything for you.”
MarAdmin 49/07 called IA billets “one of the best opportunities for individual Marines to deploy” in support of combat operations and listed how they can be considered. But that message was canceled and republished without the listed information Jan. 30 after IA billet planners began receiving requests from Marines who hadn’t yet sought their command’s approval for temporary assignment to combat duty.
Taking the information used to locate the right billet for the right Marine off the message helps keep Marines from trying to skip the AA form and redirects them instead to manpower’s Web site for further guidance, said Maj. Randall Risher, IA officer planner.
Commands don’t get replacements for Marines who go forward on IA orders, Risher said, which is why commanders must ultimately decide which of their Marines must stay put and which can be spared to go get some. For colonels and lieutenant colonels, this means the endorsement of the first general officer in their chain, according to the revised message, MarAdmin 57/07.
Risher has open billets for Marines from corporal to colonel, he said, but the majority of available IA assignments are for field- grade and senior staff noncommissioned officers.
He suggested that junior officers and enlisted Marines contact their monitors before raising their hands for an IA billet, because it may be easier for them to get permanent-change-of-station orders to a deploying unit than to snag an IA billet.
Plus, if a Marine is “due to rotate soon anyway, we’re not going to interfere with that,” Risher said. “Going on IA does not take the place of PCS orders. We always coordinate with the monitors first to make sure the Marine isn’t slated for orders.”
Ellie