Editorial: New Year, New Challenges
As we enter a new year our Nation and her Armed Services will be challenged in continuing and unique ways. The Marine Corps will also be challenged to stay the course yet adapt and also prepare to go back to the future.
At this writing, the Marine Corps is planning to redeploy a significant part of its force from Iraq to Afghanistan. This redeployment will pose significant challenges. Afghanistan is not Iraq, and although we have significant experience in combating insurgency and pacification in Iraq, many of the policies and procedures that made us successful in Iraq will not work in Afghanistan. It will take strong leadership on the part of commanders at every level to induce Marines with significant combat experience to recognize that they are in a different war, with a different enemy on different terrain and with a different set of constraints and restraints.
Operating in the background as we change our area of responsibility and return to the battlefields of Afghanistan is the immense fiscal pressures that will come to bear on the Corps. It is essential that we reset the force. Our gear, particularly our rolling stock, has to be refurbished and either replaced with newer models or replaced with the current models. Every item will receive intense scrutiny. A decision will have to be made item by item as to what is the best course of action to refit the Corps. The total bill may well be unaffordable, and therefore, tough decisions will have to be made and priorities set.
There is good news, I believe, on the manpower front. The Marine Corps Recruiting Command has done a tremendous job in recruiting and retaining enlisted Marines. Every recruiter deserves a “Bravo Zulu” or well done. The picture on the junior officer side may not be quite as rosy. Marines need good leaders, and the critical rank—the nexus of leadership at the deck plate—is the rank of captain. The good news is that we are going to grow to 202,000 Marines faster than we anticipated. The bad news is that we need more captains sooner, and we have to improve retention of captains. To this end the Marine Corps has instituted a captain recognition bonus. The essentials are that captains in a broad swath of MOSs in combat arms, combat support, and aviation will receive a $4,000 bonus if they agree to extend their obligated service for 12 months beyond their expiration of active service. The details are in MarAdmin 611–08, available at http://www.marines.mil/ news/messages/Pages/USMCCAPTAINRECOGNITIONBONUS.aspx. This is an extraordinary step that is in response to extraordinary personnel circumstances. Hopefully the carrot works because the stick is continued deployments at an unprecedented pace. It is money well spent to say thank you.
Probably the greatest unknown we face at this writing is the national security strategy and the funding support defense will receive from the incoming administration. We may have challenges in the new year, but our Corps will be found ready, willing, and able to meet them and continue to defend this great Nation.
