Conway takes deployment message on the road - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Conway takes deployment message on the road

The Corps’ top officer is hammering home his intention of getting every leatherneck onto the battlefield, while vowing to Marines stationed in Japan that he wants to increase time at home between combat tours.

Commandant Gen. James Conway met with Marines at Camp Foster on Okinawa, Japan, last week — his first trip to the Pacific fleet since assuming office in November — to discuss ongoing priorities, including improving the dwell time-to-deployment ratio.

Lengthening time at home between combat deployments for training and rest is a top priority for the commandant, who just last month issued an order to try to ensure the 66,000 leathernecks who have not yet deployed to Iraq will soon receive their orders to go.

The personnel realignment will help provide relief for those combat units on steady deployment cycles, Conway has said.

“It’s my belief that if you joined the Marine Corps after 9/11, you did so with the intent of fighting for your country,” Conway told Marines at Camp Foster. “Our goal is to do everything we can to give every Marine that opportunity.”

In addition to putting more existing Marines into the battlefield mix, Conway hopes adding more leathernecks will help lengthen Marines’ time at home. The Pentagon wants to add 22,000 leathernecks to the Corps’ current end strength of 180,000 by 2011.

Conway is slated to appear Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee, where he will testify about the Corps’ budget request. The recently released wish list includes the first wave of the end-strength increase, with plans to add 9,000 Marines by Sept. 30, 2008.