Conway: No more than 2,500 recalls from IRR - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Conway: No more than 2,500 recalls from IRR

The Corps’ involuntary call-up of as many as 1,800 Individual Ready Reserve Marines this week takes a large swipe at the number of reservists it can legally bring back into the service at one time. However, despite the current personnel crunch brought on by heavy war-time deployments, the Marine Corps will not seek to raise the number of IRR leathernecks it can press back into active duty, the top Marine commander said March 28.

Last year, Congress granted the Corps the ability to involuntarily activate up to 2,500 IRR Marines at any one time. Before this week’s announced involuntary recall of 1,800, only about 100 reservists had been called back, receiving their orders in December.

“We’ve got access to some more. The peak number is 2,500 [reservists],” Commandant Gen. James Conway said. “There’s still some numbers out there that we could access if we chose to.”

If the Corps hits the limit, however, that’s it.

“We don’t plan to go back to the President and ask for more,” Conway said.

Conway spoke to Marine Corps Times after briefing lawmakers the morning of March 28 on Capitol Hill.

Those reservists targeted this week were selected to fill communities short on personnel, Marine officials say. The military occupational specialty list includes aviation maintenance, military police, combat arms, motor transport, logistics support and communications.

The IRR recalls come at a time when the Corps faces increasing personnel pressures. Lengthening the time at home between combat tours is a top priority, Conway has repeatedly said. Currently, however, dwell time for combat Marines is just long enough for refresher training before they head back to the battlefield.

Units are also facing extensions, such as two infantry battalions held in place an additional 90 days in support of the ongoing troop build up in Iraq. Last week, the Corps announced that units deployed to Okinawa, Japan, will have their tours extended to one year, five months longer than planned.

Tacking more time on deployments, however, isn’t the Corps’ preferred way to handle the crunch, Conway said.

“We’re trying to avoid extensions, frankly,” Conway said. “We extended the people in the Pacific so as not to extend three or four other battalions. We’re trying to work toward not extending people in the theater and increasing their level of jeopardy. If we need to extend people, we’re going to ask can we do it outside the combat theater.”

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