USMC - no recruitment problems
Michael Yared
February 18, 1999
Pg. 1
U.S. Marine Corps Is Getting A Lot Of Good Men
By Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times
The Marine Corps is beating the other services in recruiting and keeping
young warriors because of its reliance on traditional
values.
"We're selling something in this country right now that's in short
supply. That's patriotism, professionalism and dedication to
country," said retired Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper, who oversaw Corps
recruiting in the early 1980s.
First Lt. Jeff Sammons, a spokesman for Marine Recruiting Command,
added, "The kids are committing to the Marine Corps
because the kids are getting this personal development. ... The Marine
Corps is the Cadillac of the military services. We require
more of them."
The Corps' well-traveled pitch for "a few good men" continues to connect
with young people while the other services scramble
to meet induction targets.
The service has met or exceeded those goals for 43 straight months. In
contrast, the Army and Navy fell short last fiscal year,
resorting to accepting more non-high school graduates. The Air Force
also missed its target the past three months. It has
started buying national TV ads for the first time in its history.
Said Robert Maginnis, a military analyst at the Family Research Council,
"It's the Marine Corps that has essentially been
unscathed over the years by all these sex scandals. People who are
serious about a career in the armed forces, there's only one
choice today and that is the Marine Corps."
The Marines also can boast better retention numbers. A recent General
Accounting Office report on first-term enlistees showed
the Corps attrition rate dropped to 33 percent since 1993, while the
Navy's, Army's and Air Force's rose.
One simple answer for the better enlistment performance is size. The
Corps, the smallest service with 174,000 troops, needs
fewer 17-to-24-year-olds to sign up than does the Army's 480,000-soldier
force.
But military experts see a more complex reason.
At a time when President Clinton's sexual misconduct is causing a
re-examination of the country's morals, the Corps' motto,
Semper Fidelis, or Always Faithful, is a welcome testament to
faithfulness.
Gen. Charles Krulak, Marine commandant, has made moral behavior an
essential Marine attribute. He objected when Defense
Department civilians last year toyed with the idea of relaxing adultery
laws. The Corps openly opposed Mr. Clinton's failed bid
in 1993 to allow open homosexuality in the military.
And, experts say, parents long for an institution that teaches
discipline and dedication.
Said retired Army Col. Terry Crews, a former Cobra helicopter pilot,
"There are a lot of kids out there that have not had the
discipline in their lives because ... their mother and father [are]
working and [they have] a liberal atmosphere at school. They
want some structure in their lives. They join the Marine Corps and get
some very strong values; the sense of being part of an
elite organization."
Mr. Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, believes the Corps'
holdout as the only service to train men and women
recruits separately helps attract recruits.
"They've allowed women to demonstrate what they can do in a stressful
environment without compromising what common
sense says about differences in the sexes," he said. "The Marine Corps
is the only service to recognize that men and women are
different and has managed throughout the years not to allow the
differences to hurt overall readiness."
First Lt. Sammons, a former recruiter, said the Corps places a premium
on the system itself. Recruiters are handpicked and
meticulously trained. Gen. Krulak personally approves the commander of
each of 48 recruiting stations.
Once inside a recruiting office, young men and women are sold on being a
Marine first. He said recruiters don't dangle college
tuition and other benefits until the person agrees to join.
"They want to be held to an accountable standard and one that will
challenge them," Lt. Sammons said.
Mr. Clinton and Senate Republicans have both proposed large pay and
benefit packages to help entice more enlistees and
retain personnel.
But a Senate Budget Committee staff report notes that Marines have met
quotas relying on the current pay scale.
Said the report, "In 1998 the retention of both first- and second-term
enlistees and of career personnel was on the increase in
the Marines. ... Is it possible that factors other than money help to
explain the hemorrhage of military personnel? One study
suggested that those other factors were loss of job satisfaction,
micro-management from senior officers and a general lack of
confidence in leadership."
Aaron M. Renn
>The Marine Corps is beating the other services in recruiting and keeping
>young warriors because of its reliance on traditional
>values.
I'm a 29yo who has never been in the military, nor paid much attention to
it, but it is easy even for me to see that the Marine Corps is going in a
different direction from the rest of the services. Recently, while waiting
for a car repair to be completed, I perused some Air Force recruiting
pamphlets at the service station. These were 100% about earning money for
college, gaining technical skills, preparation for a job, etc. There was
nothing about the values of the military or the Air Force. But just prior
to that when I was driving down SR 37 in rural southern Indiana, I saw a
Marine Corps billboard. It was nothing but the face of a Marine in dress
uniform, with the slogan "The Few, the Proud" (or something close to that).
No mention of college. No mention of job training. Nothing else but an
appeal to the pride, tradition, and values of the Marines. The contrast
could not be more sharp.
I've also noticed that the Marine Corps has managed to avoid the scandals
plaguing other branches of the service. I mean there have been high profile
incidents, such as the recent discharges for shooting wild horses, and the
accidents in Japan and Italy. But these are always individual incidents
(impossible to eliminate in any organization as large as the Marines), dealt
with through individual discipline. Every scandal in the other branches of
the service seems to threaten their very foundations. Tailhook, the Army
recruit sexual harrassment scandal, and the female B-52 pilot charged with
adultery all come to mind. Why is it that the Marines treat these things as
the individual violations of rules and military law that they are, while the
other branches cannot? Why is it that when Sarah Lister (?) calls the
Marines extremists she is the one who resigns, while when officials
criticize the other branches, it is always the military that is forced to
change its ways? I don't profess to know all the answers. But obviously
the Marine Corps is doing something right.
Since we are at peace and look to stay so for at least a few more years,
I'll probably never end up in the military. But if my country needed me,
and I felt it was my duty to serve, I'd choose the Marine Corps or nothing.
--
Aaron M. Renn (ar...@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/