thedrifter
02-06-07, 08:38 AM
Hit the pavement
To increase end strength, the Corps is adding recruiters and retention incentives
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : February 12, 2007
The Marine Corps is adding 200 recruiters this month and plans to bring on 400 more by the end of the year to help meet its goal of adding 22,000 leathernecks to the service in the next four years, Marine Corps officials told reporters Feb. 2.
The recruiting mission of more than 30,000 has been increased by 1,200 this fiscal year, placing Marine Corps Recruiting Command “in uncharted territory,” a recruiting official said.
On the retention side, officials are on the hook to deliver another 3,000 bodies from among those eligible for re-enlistment, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition that their names would not be used.
Officials want to add 5,000 Marines to the force each year until the end-strength goal is met. Additional recruiting and retention spelled out by the officials account for 4,200 of that total. It remains unclear whether the remaining 800 Marines will come as a result of recruiting or retention.
President Bush announced in January that he wants to increase the size of the Marine Corps. The plans came after Commandant Gen. James Conway announced in November that he wants to “right-size” the Corps so more Marines will have more time at home between combat deployments.
Around the time of the Bush announcement, retention officials lifted boatspace restrictions on the number of Marines each military occupational specialty can re-enlist, and extended Selective Re-enlistment Bonus eligibility to Marines who have been out of uniform for as long as four years, quadrupling the pool of Marines who can cash in to get back onto active duty to roughly 100,000. These are the Marines retention officials hope to target to meet their share of the yearly end-strength increase, officials said.
The Corps’ additional Marines will be assigned first to fields such as infantry, aviation, intelligence and military police, where dwell time between deployments is shortest, officials said, but there are no plans to stand up any large-scale units.
Instead, more battalions will be added to existing regiments, more squadrons to existing aircraft groups, and so on, “but as far as specifics, that’s being worked out,” a Marine official said.
“We have identified what the force structure will look like,” said an official who referenced changes to infantry, aviation and combat service support structures specifically. “But we don’t want to get into particulars.”
Officials were unable to specify which bases and stations would see the most significant increases in personnel, but “Okinawa [Japan] is off the table as far as permanently stationing units around the Marine Corps,” one official said.
Guam is out, too, because the Corps doesn’t plan to send Marines there until well after the end-strength increase is scheduled to be complete in 2011. So the plan is to increase troop strength inside the continental U.S. and Hawaii, the official said.
It is unclear how much military construction will be required at each location to accommodate the units slated to swell, but as things stand now, “we don’t have excess capacity to deal with the increase” at any stateside installation, the official said.
To make this happen, officials have earmarked an unspecified portion of the proposed 22,000 increase to augment instructors at military occupational specialty schools in hopes of shortening the pipeline between boot camp and the fleet for many highly technical specialties, officials said.
Ellie
To increase end strength, the Corps is adding recruiters and retention incentives
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : February 12, 2007
The Marine Corps is adding 200 recruiters this month and plans to bring on 400 more by the end of the year to help meet its goal of adding 22,000 leathernecks to the service in the next four years, Marine Corps officials told reporters Feb. 2.
The recruiting mission of more than 30,000 has been increased by 1,200 this fiscal year, placing Marine Corps Recruiting Command “in uncharted territory,” a recruiting official said.
On the retention side, officials are on the hook to deliver another 3,000 bodies from among those eligible for re-enlistment, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition that their names would not be used.
Officials want to add 5,000 Marines to the force each year until the end-strength goal is met. Additional recruiting and retention spelled out by the officials account for 4,200 of that total. It remains unclear whether the remaining 800 Marines will come as a result of recruiting or retention.
President Bush announced in January that he wants to increase the size of the Marine Corps. The plans came after Commandant Gen. James Conway announced in November that he wants to “right-size” the Corps so more Marines will have more time at home between combat deployments.
Around the time of the Bush announcement, retention officials lifted boatspace restrictions on the number of Marines each military occupational specialty can re-enlist, and extended Selective Re-enlistment Bonus eligibility to Marines who have been out of uniform for as long as four years, quadrupling the pool of Marines who can cash in to get back onto active duty to roughly 100,000. These are the Marines retention officials hope to target to meet their share of the yearly end-strength increase, officials said.
The Corps’ additional Marines will be assigned first to fields such as infantry, aviation, intelligence and military police, where dwell time between deployments is shortest, officials said, but there are no plans to stand up any large-scale units.
Instead, more battalions will be added to existing regiments, more squadrons to existing aircraft groups, and so on, “but as far as specifics, that’s being worked out,” a Marine official said.
“We have identified what the force structure will look like,” said an official who referenced changes to infantry, aviation and combat service support structures specifically. “But we don’t want to get into particulars.”
Officials were unable to specify which bases and stations would see the most significant increases in personnel, but “Okinawa [Japan] is off the table as far as permanently stationing units around the Marine Corps,” one official said.
Guam is out, too, because the Corps doesn’t plan to send Marines there until well after the end-strength increase is scheduled to be complete in 2011. So the plan is to increase troop strength inside the continental U.S. and Hawaii, the official said.
It is unclear how much military construction will be required at each location to accommodate the units slated to swell, but as things stand now, “we don’t have excess capacity to deal with the increase” at any stateside installation, the official said.
To make this happen, officials have earmarked an unspecified portion of the proposed 22,000 increase to augment instructors at military occupational specialty schools in hopes of shortening the pipeline between boot camp and the fleet for many highly technical specialties, officials said.
Ellie