thedrifter
02-13-07, 07:19 AM
Beefing up the Corps
Pentagon seeks 9,000 more Marines in 2 years
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : February 19, 2007
Defense planners are asking Congress for $4.4 billion to pay for the first wave of the Corps’ end-strength boost, and want to reactivate three infantry battalions by the end of fiscal 2008.
The Pentagon wants to expand the Corps by 9,000 devil dogs by Sept. 30, 2008, to be paid for by a combination of both the base-line Defense Department budget and two emergency wartime supplemental spending bills. This would bring the Corps’ end strength from its current 180,000 to 189,000, part of a planned increase to a total of 202,000 Marines by 2011.
The Corps will steadily add about 5,000 leathernecks a year until then, at an anticipated added personnel cost of $5 billion annually.
Corps officials are boosting retention efforts to help meet the goal, including adding 600 recruiters, increasing the cap on the Selective Re-enlistment Bonus to $60,000 and offering bonuses to former Marines who have been out of the Corps for as long as four years. Officials also have lifted re-enlistment boatspaces, meaning anyone who is eligible to re-enlist will be able to. The budget included other personnel-related increases, including:
• Special pays, up by $295 million.
• Enlistment bonuses, up by $63 million.
• Selective Re-enlistment Bonuses, up by $158 million.
“The increases will allow the Marine Corps to reward an additional 10,000 new recruits with bonuses up to $10,000 and offer re-enlistment incentives to an additional 3,700 existing personnel at a rate nearly double the rate in the base-line program for [fiscal] 2007,” said a Navy Budget Office spokesperson.
The reactivated infantry battalions — 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions, 9th Marines — will be created with money set aside for supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “While first procuring an increased additional capability in theater, these three new battalions will eventually contribute to an increased deployment-to-dwell ratio, which will relieve the operational tempo stress on Marines and their families,” the Defense Department’s budget request said.
The ratio refers to the time at home spent between deployments, which has been running at roughly seven months for Marines. Commandant Gen. James Conway has said he wants to double that time at home to 14 months.
One of the battalions mentioned in the document — 1st Battalion, 9th Marines — was already reactivated in October 2005 and had more than 500 members as of December 2006. One of its units, Alpha Company, finished a six-month deployment to Iraq in October. The battalion is under the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 6th Marines.
The other two battalions — 2/9 and 3/9 — deactivated in 1994. The budget documents did not say when specifically they would be reactivated or where they would be based.
“These additional forces will be pretty much spaced through the rest of the Marine Corps,” said budget analyst Charles Cook.
The Corps didn’t have to shift existing funds to pay for the planned addition to its current 180,000 end strength, Cook said. “It was a pure add to the top line. Nothing had to be sacrificed.”
More than 70 percent of the end-strength increase will be made up of first-term Marines, Conway said in a Corps-wide bulletin.
Pressure to fill the new ranks is bearing down on the Corps, which is expanding its re-enlistment and recruiting missions. Just days after the budget’s emergence, Conway made a personal appeal to devil dogs to re-enlist or extend in an e-mail sent to more than 50,000. In the e-mail, he acknowledged the strain deployments have caused over the past five years.
“In a larger Marine Corps, we will need the leadership, savvy and determination that experienced Marines like you provide,” Conway wrote. “Now, more than ever, your Marine Corps needs you.”
Staff writer Andrew Scutro contributed to this report.
Ellie
Pentagon seeks 9,000 more Marines in 2 years
By Kimberly Johnson - Staff writer
Posted : February 19, 2007
Defense planners are asking Congress for $4.4 billion to pay for the first wave of the Corps’ end-strength boost, and want to reactivate three infantry battalions by the end of fiscal 2008.
The Pentagon wants to expand the Corps by 9,000 devil dogs by Sept. 30, 2008, to be paid for by a combination of both the base-line Defense Department budget and two emergency wartime supplemental spending bills. This would bring the Corps’ end strength from its current 180,000 to 189,000, part of a planned increase to a total of 202,000 Marines by 2011.
The Corps will steadily add about 5,000 leathernecks a year until then, at an anticipated added personnel cost of $5 billion annually.
Corps officials are boosting retention efforts to help meet the goal, including adding 600 recruiters, increasing the cap on the Selective Re-enlistment Bonus to $60,000 and offering bonuses to former Marines who have been out of the Corps for as long as four years. Officials also have lifted re-enlistment boatspaces, meaning anyone who is eligible to re-enlist will be able to. The budget included other personnel-related increases, including:
• Special pays, up by $295 million.
• Enlistment bonuses, up by $63 million.
• Selective Re-enlistment Bonuses, up by $158 million.
“The increases will allow the Marine Corps to reward an additional 10,000 new recruits with bonuses up to $10,000 and offer re-enlistment incentives to an additional 3,700 existing personnel at a rate nearly double the rate in the base-line program for [fiscal] 2007,” said a Navy Budget Office spokesperson.
The reactivated infantry battalions — 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions, 9th Marines — will be created with money set aside for supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “While first procuring an increased additional capability in theater, these three new battalions will eventually contribute to an increased deployment-to-dwell ratio, which will relieve the operational tempo stress on Marines and their families,” the Defense Department’s budget request said.
The ratio refers to the time at home spent between deployments, which has been running at roughly seven months for Marines. Commandant Gen. James Conway has said he wants to double that time at home to 14 months.
One of the battalions mentioned in the document — 1st Battalion, 9th Marines — was already reactivated in October 2005 and had more than 500 members as of December 2006. One of its units, Alpha Company, finished a six-month deployment to Iraq in October. The battalion is under the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 6th Marines.
The other two battalions — 2/9 and 3/9 — deactivated in 1994. The budget documents did not say when specifically they would be reactivated or where they would be based.
“These additional forces will be pretty much spaced through the rest of the Marine Corps,” said budget analyst Charles Cook.
The Corps didn’t have to shift existing funds to pay for the planned addition to its current 180,000 end strength, Cook said. “It was a pure add to the top line. Nothing had to be sacrificed.”
More than 70 percent of the end-strength increase will be made up of first-term Marines, Conway said in a Corps-wide bulletin.
Pressure to fill the new ranks is bearing down on the Corps, which is expanding its re-enlistment and recruiting missions. Just days after the budget’s emergence, Conway made a personal appeal to devil dogs to re-enlist or extend in an e-mail sent to more than 50,000. In the e-mail, he acknowledged the strain deployments have caused over the past five years.
“In a larger Marine Corps, we will need the leadership, savvy and determination that experienced Marines like you provide,” Conway wrote. “Now, more than ever, your Marine Corps needs you.”
Staff writer Andrew Scutro contributed to this report.
Ellie