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thedrifter
05-29-07, 07:30 AM
Staff sergeant bonanza
End-strength hike shoots allocations up 47 percent
By John Hoellwarth - jhoellwarth@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 04, 2007

If you’ve got your eye on an evening dress uniform, go buy it now, because the line is about to get longer.

When this year’s staff sergeant board lets out, 1,500 more Marines than last year will earn their rockers as allocations are set to go up a whopping 47 percent.

The Corps’ need to increase active-duty end strength by 5,000 Marines this fiscal year is driving the increase, based on zones and allocations released May 21.

The jump in allocations follows a 14 percent spike in allocations for the next-highest rank, gunnery sergeant, whose board is in session right now.

In February, when those allocations were announced, Corps manpower officials attributed the increase to the planned boost in end strength.

Because enlisted promotions work on a “pull system,” more staff sergeants are a product of more gunnys, and should trickle down to lower cutting scores for promotions to sergeant and corporal, the Corps’ enlisted promotions planner, Lt. Col. Daniel White, said in March.

Retired Sgt. Maj. Gary Lee, a manpower policy expert at the Center for Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Va., said with the increased requirement for staff sergeants, “then subsequently you have a requirement for more sergeants, more corporals and more lance corporals.”

A spokesman for Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va., declined to answer questions about this year’s staff sergeant allocations and their effect on other enlisted promotions.

The end-strength boost, announced earlier this year, will eventually add 22,000 active-duty Marines to the Corps, for an overall end strength of 202,000 by 2011. The plan involves adding roughly 5,000 Marines per year.

The staff sergeant board convenes July 17. With 4,438 sergeants set to be approved for a rocker this year, 2007’s allocations are the highest the Corps has seen since at least 1999, which is as far back as the data on Manpower’s Web site goes. Of those, 492 allocations have been set aside for infantry sergeants, a 149.7 percent increase over the 197 sergeants selected for the infantry unit leader MOS last year.

Though the infantry community has historically enjoyed the largest slice of allocations, MarAdmin 320/07, which lists this year’s promotion zones and allocations for each MOS, shows staff sergeant promotions for light attack helicopter mechanics will open wide as well. Sergeants in MOS 6114 will get 55 allocations this year, a 816.7 percent increase from six allotted in fiscal 2006.

Combat engineers will also benefit from this year’s increase in staff sergeant allocations. With 88 rockers to award, combat engineers will see a 282.6 percent increase.

But that doesn’t mean every military occupational specialty will benefit from the high numbers, said Lee, who was the 13th sergeant major of the Marine Corps.

In contrast to officers, who are promoted against each other Corps-wide regardless of MOS, enlisted zones and allocations are set for each MOS individually based on its annual attrition rate and the seniority of its Marines, which is why the need to promote can vary across job fields.

The MarAdmin identifies a handful of job specialties that will promote fewer staff sergeants this year than they did last.

Military police saw the sharpest decrease from last year in terms of hard numbers, with 65 fewer allocations than the board granted in fiscal 2006. All other MOSs on the list of 10 biggest decreases are aviation-specific jobs. Increased allocations for light attack helicopter mechanics stands out as an exception to many aviation jobs. Among them are F/A-18 Hornet mechanics, who saw a 95.7 percent decrease in allocations from 23 last year to one in 2007.

In all, eight aviation MOSs were given only one allocation this year and 16 others were allocated five or fewer.

Manpower’s spokesman declined to comment on what factors might account for the aviation community’s general decline in staff sergeant promotions at a time when most other job fields are adding junior staff noncommissioned officers.

Regardless of the allocations each MOS receives, the board will consider more Marines than it intends to promote in order to ensure a competitive process, Lee said.

“You always put more people in zone than you have allocations for,” Lee said. “To get eight staff sergeants, we probably put 11 in zone, totally understanding three won’t get it. That’s how we make sure the best quality Marine gets promoted.”

Manpower officials refer to the percentage of Marines who get selected among those considered as “promotion opportunity.”

Unlike officer promotion opportunity, which is governed by Defense Department regulations for each rank from captain to colonel, enlisted promotion opportunity varies for each MOS and changes from year to year based on the needs of the Corps, Lee said.

“Some zones would have a 90 percent opportunity, whereas some would have seven out of 10,” he said. “The point is, everyone gets an opportunity to compete.”

Speaking in general terms, Lee said an overall increase in staff sergeant allocations should mean “an increase in opportunity for advancement, frankly, for all Marines on active duty.”

Ellie