Though Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said earlier this year that he wants 25 percent of new recruits to be female, Marine Corps officials expect slightly more than 10 percent of new enlisted Marines and officers to be women this fiscal year. That is slightly better than last year, when women accounted for 8.6 percent of enlisted accessions and 9 percent of officer accessions.

The service does not have an assigned quota for female accessions, according to Jim Edwards, spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command. Female accessions typically run between 8 and 10 percent of the total number of recruits. total force accessions.

The Marine Corps' recruiting quota for fiscal 2016 is 30,500 enlisted and 1,450 officers for active duty, a 3.5 percent increase over the 2015 enlisted goal, but a 6.7 percent drop for officers. The command expects that 3,200 of the total will be women, according to Edwards.

The Corps looks to add 5,105 enlisted and 130 officers for the Marine Corps Reserve. which is almost identical to last year's goals. In addition, the Corps looks to add 3,971 Marines (officer and enlisted combined) through prior-service accessions, a boost of 342 over last year.

In September, Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis, then head of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, said recruiters would be given new quotas to recruit more women.

"They are going to be told what the floor is, and they are going to be recruiting females," Brilakis said.

But Brilakis, who has since become deputy commandant for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, stressed then that Marine leaders were already three to four years into their own female recruitment push, with measurable success.

Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy assumed command of Marine Corps Recruiting Command on Dec. 17. He previously commanded 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Okinawa, Japan, and served a previous tour within MCRC as commanding officer of Recruiting Station San Francisco from 1997 through 2000.

Kennedy will be dealing with two-other hot button issues in 2016.

Pentagon officials are taking a hard look at proposals to allow civilians with highly specialized skills to enter military service at advanced ranks. The purpose of such a move would be to fill jobs that require a lot of technical expertise, particularly in the cyber/information warfare fields. So far, the Corps has not enacted any new programs along these lines, although the service already does it with the talented musicians who join The President's Own as staff sergeants.

Also, in the wake of the attack on a recruiting station and Naval Reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed four Marines and a sailor, new security measures are expected to be put in place by April.

In an October memo to the military's top uniformed and civilian leadership, including all of the service chiefs and heads of the military's joint combatant commands, Defense Secretary Ash Carter directed security enhancements at recruiting stations and small, remote military facilities. They will include more training alongside local law enforcement, accelerating use of extra "physical security enhancements," and improving mass notification alerts to inform local authorities and other nearby military personnel when there are specific threats or attacks already unfolding

The Marine Corps plans to add security cameras at recruiting centers, outfit doors with remote-locking mechanisms and provide offices with movable shields and desk partitions capable of stopping bullets. But Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has said recruiters will not be allowed to carry weapons, which would conflict with their mission.

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