MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Marine leaders are envisioning the future makeup of the Corps as Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford's Marine Corps will be a more mature, technically-oriented force, which could drastically alter the service's culture as it prepareds to fight savvy enemies and work with meet the demands of increasingly nuanced missions and advanced platforms — and it could drastically alter the service's culture.

Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford, who became took the Corps' top leader reins in October, has hinted at this vision for months. It's an older and more specialized Corps that will see noncommissioned officer and staff NCO ranks grow while the bottom three paygrades shrink.

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill March 17, Dunford told members of Congress that he believes "… I also believe that the demographics in the Marine Corps need to change to account for the increasingly complex security environment.

" Dunford told the congressmen and women. "So tToday we may have a 60 percent first-term force, but I don't believe that it should be that case in the future," he said.

The Corps has historically been the youngest force across the military, with more than half on their first enlistment and roughly 40 percent of Marines filling the three most junior paygrades.

But as Marines are called on to Marines at the sergeant squad leader level are facing more significant challenges than every as they work to master fields like cyber and work on advanced platforms like the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, Dunford said the service might need to make changes.

Such a plan could drastically alter the trajectory of Marines' careers. It could also shift the culture of the Marine Corps, which prides itself on placing a great deal of responsibility into the hands of young corporals and sergeants. The service is looking to take some of the leadership responsibility, and move it up the chain.

"Actually I released a message last week where we're moving that frontline leadership from a three- to four-year sergeant to a five- to six-year sergeant so we can better integrate what I call maturity, which is experience, education and training," Dunford said during a panel discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based public policy group, earlier this month.

Dunford has made identifying and addressing gaps in leadership billets one of his top priorities. In his planning guidance, released Jan. 23, he declared a shortfall in experienced small unit leaders, stating that the service's readiness and combat effectiveness were degraded as long as it lasts.

Addressing those gaps requires making sure the right Marines are in the right jobs, and now officials with Manpower and Reserve Affairs have been tapped to ensure that's the case across the Corps.

A more senior force

With the nature of warfare changing, and Marines operating in more dispersed environments, junior enlisted leaders are making decisions once made by officers. Complex vehicles, aircraft and information systems used on the battlefield also require more technical knowledge.

The expertise needed in leadership billets could vary across military occupational specialties, said Col. William Tosick, the head of the plans, programs and budget branch of M&RA here at Quantico.

"The 21st century Marine Corps is much more technical," Tosick said. "Some MOSs take a lot more time achieving and maintaining MOS credibility. [In fields like] cyber, things change quickly. Airframes are getting more and more technical, so training pipelines are getting longer."

In communities like infantry, that junior leadership role will likely continue to be filled by sergeants, if older sergeants. But not every community's version of a "squad leader" — the bedrock on which the unit is founded — may be a sergeant.

Gunnery Sgt. Patrick Lewis, Company C gunnery sergeant, Headquarters Battalion, pins gunnery sergeant rank insignia on newly promoted Gunnery Sgt. Craig Wilcox, Company A gunnery sergeant, HQBN, at Lance Cpl. Torrey L. Gray Field, April 2, 2014. "My philosophy has always been don't worry too hard about trying to promote yourself," Wilcox said. "Take your job, learn it inside and out, and just drive on with that."(Official Marine Corps Photo By Lance Cpl. Kasey Peacock/Released)

Newly promoted Gunnery Sgt. Craig Wilcox, Company A gunnery sergeant, Headquarters Battalion is pinned at Marine Corps Air Ground combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. The service could see its gunny ranks grow as future missions and new platforms require increased technical expertise.

Photo Credit: Lance Cpl. Kasey Peacock, U.S. Marines

In more technical fields, as Dunford's recent comments suggest, it might be more appropriate to have more staff NCO billets, and less room for privates through lance corporals.

"We are going to look at other [occupational] fields and see what their squad leader is," Tosick said.

As an example, Tosick offered the aviation field. He offered as an example, the aviation field. Sometimes a junior leader who has mastered the core competencies of their job and advises others may be more senior than a sergeant. That speaks to the sophistication required to be, for example, a night systems instructor, as Tosick once was.

The need for such specialized technical experts, however, can be at odds with some of the Marine Corps' current manpower policiesy, including special duty assignments and promotion boards.

An average SDA tour for example, takes a Marine away from their primary MOS for about three years. Long seen as a way to stand out in front of promotion boards, an SDA puts a Marine in a billet that takes him or her out of their safety zone, and puts them into recruiting or drill instructor billets. – their military occupational specialty – for three years. SDAs include recruiters, drill instructors, Marine security guard, combat instructor and security forces.

Before a selection board, an SDA billet looks good. It's no guarantee for promotion, but it shows a Marine who has expanded horizons. Conversely, it can scuttle a career if it erodes MOS credibility too much, career planners have warned.

It is enough of a challenge for an infantry Marine to maintain MOS credibility and then reenter their field after 36 months away. When dealing with cyber operations, things can change month by month and three years on an SDA is like an eternity, Tosick said.

To accommodate a more technically proficient force, Tosick said the need to rethink the length of SDA assignments may arise. Exactly what that would look like remains to be seen.

Sgt. Justin Glenn Burnside motivates a recruit at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina.The service may consider shortening special duty assignments like drill instructor to help Marines maintain proficiency in their primary military occupational specialty.

Photo Credit: (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. David Bessey)

"Are you still going to have a cyber guy who wants to be a DI? Yes. You shouldn't prevent people from doing it, but maybe make it a two year tour so they are not gone from the fleet forever and they can get back to their job," Tosick said.

Marines on loan

One of the first steps manpower experts will take in identifying areas for improvement across the Corps is to map out Step one is mapping where Marines are assigned, because paper rosters may not give an accurate picture.

While there may be a shortage in experienced NCOs noncommissioned officers, it might not be an issue of numbers, but rather location, Tosick said Manpower and Reserve Affairs Tosick said.

"We are going to go out to the fleet and find out where all these people are," he said. "We will probably find out there are thousands of people we think are in one place, but they are on loan somewhere else."

For example, Tthe Fleet Assistance Program allows – FAP, as it's more commonly called – commanders to borrow Marines from another unit for a temporary job. But it became a common way of filling shortages during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and some of those loans became permanent or semi-permanent.

Tosick said there are some positions being filled through used a general's driver as an example of a job filled through the Fleet Assistance Program FAP that might need to should perhaps be added to the service's official table of organization as a permanent billet.

The program can leaves the Corps' top Mmanpower planners, who make it their business to keep tabs on Marines so they can fill the service's table of organization, in the dark. As a result, the exact extent and depth of the NCO shortage remains unknown, Tosick said.

His command is launching a massive survey of the fleet to determine where Marines are assigned and why.

Once manpower completed that their survey, the results will be passed to of the force, they will hand the results to planners at Marine Corps Combat Development Command, who do force structure reviews. They will look at the service's table of organization, which essentially outlines the service's billets by unit. The revised table will go back to manpower planners, who will then work to fill it accordingly in the years ahead.

"The way we make the appropriate manpower is with a stable table of organization," Tosick said, emphasizing that it takes months to years to make Marines, depending on military occupational specialty. MOS. Without a stable target, manpower goals can change faster than the Marine Corps can fill them, he said.

More assignable Marines

Filling any shortages that arise under a revised table of organization is also about increasing the number of assignable Marines. That is the service's total end strength minus Marines who are injured, in the brig, in a school house or near their end of active service date.

The pool of assignable Marines, relative to the service's table of organization, is in many ways more relevant than the service's overall end strength. Manpower projections estimate that in 2016 the service will be about 4,500 Marines shy of what is called for in the table of organization — but that table could change once manpower completes its survey now underway.

To increase efficiency and meet the needs of a future table of organization, manpower aims to reduce the amount of non-assignable Marines, Tosick said. While they don't have much direct control over those who are injured, in legal trouble, or about to leave the service, the Marine Corps could tweak schoolhouse curricula um in order to cut unnecessary requirements and reduce the amount of time Marines spend in classrooms.

Tosick offered the curriculum once used to train OV-10 Bronco pilots. A pilot training to fly the now-retired platform, which Marines last took to the skies with a Marine at the stick in 1995, were required to undergo some of the same training as jet pilots, including landing on a carrier. In fact, they were flying a turbo prop that may never need to land on a ship.

Finding similar inefficiencies like that could be used to streamline formal programs of instruction and trim months from off of training time, all just one facet of alleviating shortages, including those already highlighted by Dunford.

Promotion opportunities

The service will always have infantry lance corporals. But growth in future career opportunity could be seen in other fields. Developing a more mature Marine Corps could also mean a shot at re-enlistment and promotion opportunities.

"[We're] in the process now of actually increasing the numbers of sergeants, staff sergeants, gunnery sergeants — those are the middle-grade enlisted ranks — in and reducing the numbers of lance corporals, PFCs, and privates — those are the bottom three enlisted grades," Dunford recently told members of Congress last week.

That's already seemingly apparent in promotion opportunities. New gunnery sergeant slots, for example, rose to their highest this year since the days before theoft-discussed drawdown began.

Though final numbers remain under wraps, about round 1,900 staff sergeants will advance a grade this fiscal year. Those promotions will open up ffer opportunities for to more junior Marines looking to move up.Every new E-7 means a new E-6 and so on down the line, officials have said.

But Dunford's vision for the Corps also means Marines should be looking at — and be prepared to leap into — more specialized fields. That's not news to Marines who have been attentive in mapping out their careers.

A 21st century Marine is in recognition of much more technical, Tosick said. Dunford concurs. Even NCOs leading the infantry carry more of a burden than in years past, the commandant said.An older Corps, Dunford said is ""technological developments with the F-35, cyber capabilities as well as our infantry squad leaders, who, today, have the responsibility, frankly, that were probably more in line with what a lieutenant was doing 15 or 20 years ago," Dunford said.

"I think that also requires some changes again in the demographics and the construct of the Marine Corps."

Staff writer Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report.

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