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Corps to stand up new units

Faced with permanently growing its ranks by 22,000, the Marine Corps will focus on standing up new units instead of a blanket expansion of military occupational specialties, a Defense Department source said Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called for expanding the Corps’ end strength to 202,000 over the next five years, growing the force by about 5,000 Marines a year.

The force expansion will go a long way toward helping Commandant Gen. James Conway realize his goal of extending home time for deploying units. Conway has said he plans to “right-size” the force and wants to increase the “deployment-to-dwell” ratio to 1:2. So for every seven-month deployment, a unit would spend an average of 14 months at home.

Deploying units currently spend about seven months home before deploying again on a combat tour.

Conway is headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify in a closed hearing about Corps readiness before the House Appropriation’s defense subcommittee.