Top Corps Recruiter Getting More Selective

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. – The Marine Corps has long demanded its recruits to exhibit three characteristics: honor, courage and commitment.

It may need to add another trait to that list: patience.

Robust recruiting efforts intended to add roughly 27,000 Marines to create a 202,000-strong force have been so effective that incoming recruits may have a long wait to enter the Corps' recruit depot here or MCRD Parris Island, S.C.

In some cases, the wait may be up to six months, according to Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of Marine Corps Recruit Depot/Western Recruiting Region.

Salinas spoke to Military.com earlier this month from her office here at the San Diego recruit depot while thousands of recruits bustled across the installation in the various stages of boot camp.

She also stressed that the boost in recruiting has raised standards in several areas.

Formerly, a recruit who fails a drug test merited a 30-day postponement to allow the recruit to pass a new drug test. No longer. Fail a drug test now and the Corps isn't interested. 

The Corps is also taking a harder line on tattoos. Too much ink, especially on a recruit's forearms, could keep a potential Marine out of boot camp.

In short, if you're serious about wearing the eagle, globe and anchor don't even think about hitting that joint at the after-prom party and save the tattoos for well after your first combat deployment. 

"We're much more selective because we can be," said Salinas, the Marine Corps' first female Hispanic general and one of only three active-duty women generals in the Corps. She said the Corps reached its recruiting goal for the month of June less than a week into the month.

In fact, the Corps exceeded the goal of 202,000 active duty Marines by several thousand and is now working to slim down so as to not stress limited resources.

That's good news for recruiters plying the nation's schoolyards and strip malls, but less positive for a young man or woman wanting to enlist today and ship off to boot camp tomorrow.

The most popular job in the Corps remains combat infantry – military occupational specialty 0311 – and that job has a lengthy wait, Salinas said.

"In the past, anywhere from 30 to 90 days was the average wait once you enlisted, if you are physically able," Salinas said. "Now, if a high school graduate walks in the door right now, many [recruiters] don't have a place for him until November or December."

Salinas said the increased wait time has actually helped recruiters ensure they are only shipping the cream of the crop to boot camp.

"We're able to sit back and take a longer look at this person," Salinas said. "We're able to cut and screen, cut and screen and take only the best and the brightest."

Despite the wait time and increasingly stringent entry requirements, Salinas stressed that a young person with a few flaws on their personal transcript should not discount the possibility of life as a Marine.

"Nothing is ever impossible. We try to look for the total man picture," she said, noting that a felony waiver may even be possible for an otherwise solid young person who commits one foolhardy act.

Salinas said the additional money granted by Congress has helped grow the Corps so quickly.

"You see around the Marine Corps a lot of groundbreakings and new buildings going up, especially barracks," she said. "And we've been able to take care of Marines and their families with generous re-enlistment programs."

But she stressed the struggling economy will put tremendous pressure on a larger Corps in the coming years.

"Our Marines are well aware … this was a good time," Salinas said. "But all those re-enlistment bonuses are not going to be around any more."

Going forward, with the Corps slated to be out of Iraq completely by this time next year while increasing its presence in Afghanistan, the challenge will be to efficiently manage manpower to increase time at home to the coveted 2-to-1 ratio: seven months downrange to 14 months back home.

And then there's the problem if 202,000 still isn't enough.

"In the future, the challenge is going to be does the nation want the Marine Corps to be even bigger?" she said.