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Corps Fashions "Provisional Units," Tighter Deployment Schedules
Page 2
Photo by Staff Sgt. Bill Lisbon
The service is running a tight rotation schedule that involves moving 10 infantry battalions, a light armored reconnaissance battalion and a reconnaissance battalion into
Iraq after an initial deployment of similar units last March. It is rotating an infantry battalion in and out of
Afghanistan and deploying nearly 1,000 Marines in Djibouti and elsewhere in Africa. Support and administrative personnel are deployed as well, with many stationed overseas for one-year stints.
McSweeney said the Corps’ goal is to sustain a one-to-one deployment schedule ratio, in terms of deployment and stateside time, and it has enough units to do the job. But he added that the Corps needs military police, intelligence and civil affairs units, which is where the service is having to get creative. To field forces with these capabilities, the Marine Corps is establishing provisional units — training lesser-used combat units such as artillery battalions for infantry and military police duties. By December, the Corps will employ three such provisional units.
Unit members already have Marine infantry training and will receive specialized training before hitting the streets of Iraq, McSweeney said. “In the case of artillery units acting as provisional infantry or MP units, an extensive training regimen is involved, which includes extensive exposure to cultural awareness and security and stabilization operations issues,” he said. Provisional infantry units include a small cadre of intelligence officers and civil affairs specialists.
The Corps is adjusting Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) rotations to include two infantry units instead of three, which frees up the third for use elsewhere. MEUs typically comprise 1,500 to 3,000 Marines and are the Corps’ smallest air-ground task force deployed for forward contingencies. Also, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, has been added to the combat rotations in Iraq. The option to call up additional reserve units remains, as does adding to end-strength, if all else fails, McSweeney said.
Corps officials said they can sustain the high operations tempo for at least another year, but admit they are monitoring indicators, such as retention figures and personnel readiness statistics, for signs of burnout. To ease the stresses of combat and the quick rotation tempo, the Personnel and Family Readiness Division has instituted a number of programs — including counseling and classes — to help Marines and their families deal with the stress brought about by the rotation schedules.
Marine units are helping by offering light work schedules immediately upon returning from deployment and easing Marines back into the training cycle. And Marines are taking the Corps up on its offer of help, said Susan Della-Corte, director of Marine and Family Services at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“We are seeing more of them,” she said. “We started having counseling sessions and group sessions after seeing some signs of stress around the base, but it was limited in attendance. But once the commands — [Lt.] Gen. [James] Conway and [Lt.] Gen. [James] Mattis — started saying ‘it’s perfectly OK for you to get some help,’ that had a huge impact on us.”
One indicator — retention — also appears to show that Marines aren’t voting with their feet. While the 2004 fiscal year figures have yet to be calculated, the Corps’ third-quarter numbers show the service is on tap for meeting reenlistment goals.
By June, the service had met 95 percent of its annual goal for first-term re-enlistments. For those re-upping for subsequent terms, the Corps was over its target, having met 108 percent of its goals, according to Capt. Jeff Landis, a spokesman for Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.
This year’s results put retention on par with previous years, Landis said, and although it’s too early to really understand the impact of operations Enduring Freedom and
Iraqi Freedom, manpower officials aren’t surprised by the results to date.
“If you join the
Marine Corps, you know at least one time in your career, your nation is going to need you. There is loyalty. There’s decisiveness,” Landis said.
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