More IRR activations coming this summer - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

More IRR activations coming this summer

The Corps plans to involuntarily activate as many as 1,800 more Individual Ready Reserve leathernecks this summer, a top manpower officer said Thursday.

The call-up, following closely on the heels of a similarly sized one in March, is based on manpower forecasts for the coming 12 to 18 months, said Col. Guy Stratton, head of planning and policy with Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Va.

Those mustered during the summer call-up will be issued orders for active-duty screening, a process that will likely reduce the pool eligible for deployment. The Corps estimates, for example, that about 1,200 of the 1,800 activated in the March call-up will be issued orders for combat deployment.

Those in the summer call-up found fit for active duty will be given orders to U.S. Central Command next year and likely will be headed to Iraq, Stratton said.

Legally, the Corps can involuntarily activate and issue deployment orders to only 2,500 IRR Marines at a time. Late last year, about 100 were issued orders; about 1,200 more from the March call-up are expected to receive deployment orders.

While the Corps is aware of the cap, it plans to continue call-ups as long as needed to keep combat units up to strength, Stratton said.

“If we’re going to start bringing the forces home from Iraq, we’ll obviously shut it off or ramp it down or whatever it needs to be modified. As long as we’re maintaining the Marine Corps presence, then we’ll continue to do IRR call-ups,” he said.

Keeping tabs on the 60,000 Marines in the IRR remains a constant challenge. Earlier this year, Brig. Gen. Darrell Moore, commander of the Kansas City-based Marine Corps Mobilization Command, said that as many as 20 percent of IRR forces cannot be located because they have failed to keep their contact information current.

“Some of the Marines just don’t want to have any more contact with the Marine Corps,” Stratton said. “They will tell you ‘I did my four years, and I’d just as soon go on and do something else.’ ”

The Corps puts a lot of effort into maintaining contact, but there are few means open to finding information.

“The easiest way of doing it is ... call the next of kin,” Stratton said.

Manpower officials are barred from tapping into other government records, such as Internal Revenue Service or even university records.

“If they’re getting some type of military associated benefit ... we can cross-reference our records,” he said.

Corps officials will make an appeal to Defense Secretary Robert Gates next month to expand their ability to tap into other government records, Stratton said.

“We, the four services, constantly ask OSD, ‘Are there different ways we can be allowed, like a magazine subscription? Can we get an address from that?’ We really haven’t been given too many avenues,” he said.

Related reading:

Recalled reservists report for screening

Conway: No more than 2,500 recalls from IRR

Corps calls up IRR Marines for Iraq

More IRR Marines face involuntary call-ups