Kent takes on drawdown rumors, PFT fairness - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Kent takes on drawdown rumors, PFT fairness

The Marine Corps will consider altering its Physical Fitness Test and expanding barracks space for single Marines now that its top officer has agreed with recommendations made recently by senior enlisted leaders.

Commandant Gen. James Conway approved studies to look at both issues, said Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, his top enlisted adviser. The recommendations were made after this year’s Sergeants Major Symposium. Senior enlisted leaders considered 38 agenda items during the conference, held in August in National Harbor, Md., but walked away with just the two proposals for Conway. Historically, all recommendations made after the symposium have resulted in some sort of official action.

Kent met with Marine Corps Times in his Pentagon office Sept. 1 for a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed the PFT and barracks recommendations, and what he observed during his recent trip to Afghanistan with Conway and two other general officers. He also said he is on a mission to set the record straight about rumors circulating among Marines that suggest the Corps could face a drastic reduction in end strength — from about 202,000 Marines today to 147,000 within the next few years.

“You know, the commandant said, ‘Why would I get the Corps to 202 to draw us down to 147?’ ” Kent said. “That doesn’t make sense because we want Marines to get more dwell time. As long as we’re in combat, the commandant has said we’re going to stay at 202 because we don’t want Marines to be back to this [seven-month dwell time to seven-month operational tempo] that they were at four years ago, or even two years ago. As long as we’re in combat, we’re going to stay at 202.”

The rumors appear to have started after media coverage of a June report to Congress by the Sustainable Defense Task Force, an independent team assembled after lawmakers said strategies were needed to reduce future Pentagon budgets, in light of the country’s growing deficit.

Some of the task force’s ideas — killing expensive programs such as the Corps’ developmental Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, for example — have been floated before. However, the task force’s report also included proposals written by Benjamin Friedman and Christopher Preble, analysts at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington. They called for a “strategy of restraint” that would result in deep manpower cuts to the Army and Marine Corps, with the Army being reduced from about 560,000 soldiers to 360,000, and the Corps falling from 202,000 Marines to 145,000.

Marine Corps Times reported in July that such cuts were unlikely and would make the Corps smaller than it has been at any time since 1950, when there were about 74,300 Marines on active duty before the U.S. took an active role in the Korean War. Kent said fears have persisted, however, and he has a simple message for all Marines.

“That ain’t happening, I can tell you that right now,” he said. “The commandant has made it clear: If and when — and I say if we cut — it ain’t going to be like Desert Storm-Desert Shield, where Marines had one month and we told them, ‘Thank you for your service, but you’re leaving.’ We’re going to keep as many great Marines around that want to stay, and there won’t be anyone who is forced out.”

The number of active-duty Marines dropped from about 194,000 to 184,500 between 1991 and 1992, after major operations in Iraq ended, according to Defense Department documents. Thousands more Marines were shed through 1994, with the Corps’ end strength dropping to 174,000. Kent sent out an e-mail this month to sergeants major, master gunnery sergeants and command master chiefs, asking them to set the record straight with junior Marines and NCOs.

PFT changes coming?

After considering everything from infantry weapons to manpower policy, senior enlisted leaders ultimately decided at this year’s symposium that only two topics weren’t already being addressed and needed to be put before Conway.

In one recommendation, the sergeants major asked the commandant to consider the PFT and how female Marines are scored on it.

While male Marines must crank out pull-ups as part of a battery of tests that also include a three-mile run and crunches, female Marines are required to do the flexed-arm hang. Currently, female Marines younger than 26 must hang from the bar for 70 seconds to get a perfect 100 points on that portion of the PFT. However, regardless of whether a female Marine is strong enough to hold her chin above the bar or merely prevent her elbows from locking while dangling below, she scores the same number of points.

Female senior enlisted Marines who attended the symposium suggested the Corps should reassess how women are scored on the test, and whether the flexed-arm hang should be kept as part of the test, Kent said.

“They think it’s long overdue for us to conduct a study to see if this flexed-arm hang ... is still the way to go, or should we look at it differently now,” he said. “The demands for female Marines over in combat right now are a lot higher, because they’re out there, and they have to carry gear, just like the male Marines.”

The commandant has agreed to form a study group that will be headed by Training and Education Command, based in Quantico, Va., to assess what options might be available to eliminate the flexed-arm hang or revise how that portion of the PFT is scored, Kent said.

“Before a decision is made, we have to say, ‘Is this fair for every Marine?’ and that’s to include our female Marines,” he said. “We’ve got females out there who can get up there and knock out 20 dead-hangs. But, we also have female Marines who cannot do that, so we have to be fair across the board.”

More barracks construction

The senior enlisted community also suggested to Conway that the service explore building more bachelor enlisted quarters so that when a unit returns from combat, there always is enough room for its single enlisted Marines to fit in the same barracks, Kent said.

Currently, that isn’t possible due to space. The Corps plans its housing under the assumption that about 10 percent of Marines eligible to live in BEQs are deployed, leaving those rooms empty. Occasionally that means splitting up units when they return from overseas, a practice senior enlisted leaders say hurts unit cohesion.

“One of the commandant’s focuses has been to build quality BEQs for the Marines,” Kent said. “We have been delinquent in the past, but the commandant said, ‘It’s time to focus on those single Marines.’ It’s a good time, while we’re putting money into the BEQs, to look at this and see if we’re doing this the right way. The last thing we want to do is to break up units.”

The Corps has not yet determined how much it would cost to build enough BEQ billeting for units to remain together when they return to the U.S., but it would appear to be hundreds of millions of dollars if the service stays at its current size.

Since 2006, a total of 22,956 two-man rooms have been built on 10 bases and stations in California, Arizona, Hawaii, North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia at a cost of more than $2 billion, said 1st Lt. Gregory Wolf, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters. The Corps currently has plans to build 5,016 more two-man rooms in 2011, 2,140 in 2012 and 408 in 2013, at a combined cost of $896.7 million, but many of those rooms are set aside to replace aging barracks now in use.

Afghanistan explored

Kent’s interview came just days after he returned from his trip to Afghanistan. In addition to Conway, two generals made the trip, too: Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, and Maj. Gen. Richard Tryon, who stepped down as commander of 2nd Marine Division, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., in July. Waldhauser has been nominated to become the next commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Marine Corps Forces Central Command, out of Tampa, Fla. Tryon has been nominated to take Waldhauser’s place at PP&O.

The trip took them to about 15 forward operating bases and combat outposts in two days. They were briefed at Camp Leatherneck, the Corps’ operational hub in southern Afghanistan, but also visited other large FOBs such as Camp Dwyer, a base in Garmser district that is home to Regimental Combat Team 7 headquarters. They also visited smaller outposts and even spent time with forces from Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Kent said.

“What was amazing is that when they had questions, none of them had questions about themselves,” he said. “Nobody said, ‘This is what happened to me. Can you help me?’ The questions were more like, ‘OK, what’s the future of our Corps? Where are we going from here?’”

Conway and his staff also spent a day at the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force, and visited Camp Eggers, a base in Afghanistan’s capital that is home to Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan, which trains Afghan forces and is headed by Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell.

Kent cited the actions of Cpl. Joe Wrightsman, 23, as an example of heroism in Afghanistan that isn’t always recognized. An infantryman with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, he drowned in a river in Helmand province July 18 while trying to save an Afghan police officer who had been swept away. Wrightsman was wearing all of his gear and body armor at the time, but jumped back into the river to help anyway, Kent said. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

“That’s a hell of a story,” Kent said. “He probably didn’t even know that man’s name, but he did it anyway. It says a lot about the way that they’re working together and our Marines that he would do that without hesitation.”