The job market is struggling, just as the Marine Corps undergoes a drawdown of forces that will reduce the size of the service from 202,100 Marines in 2010 to 182,100 by fall 2016. What’s a Marine to do, then? This week’s Marine Corps Times cover story explores the options that are on the table in a new transition assistance program the White House and Defense Department have planned for all troops leaving military service. It has similarities to a program the Corps rolled out earlier this year, but there are definitely differences, too. Marine and Pentagon officials are now in…
Browsing: Behind the Cover
The Marine Corps’ ongoing reduction in forces means many things to our readers — including fewer promotion opportunities in many military occupational specialties and expanded incentive programs to leave the service. This week’s Marine Corps Times weighs in on both of those issues. The main cover story outlines the ranks and jobs where the Corps’ promotion system is jammed up, and what the service is doing to fix it. We also lay out the details in the fiscal 2013 version of the Voluntary Enlisted Early Release Program, which will allow eligible enlisted Marines to leave the service up to a…
Despite rules against it, hazing is one of those perennial problems that just don’t seem to end. The 2011 suicide of a lance corporal, whose death after getting berated and hazed for falling asleep on post in Afghanistan, brought the issue to the halls of Capitol Hill earlier this year as lawmakers (including his aunt, a Hawaii congresswoman) demanded tougher penalties for perpetrators who inflict pain and humiliation on each other. When the commandant, Gen. James Amos, issued a stern warning in February and updated the 1997 order prohibiting any hazing, the message was loud and clear: Such behavior would…
The Marine Corps may be in the process of drawing down from 202,100 Marines to 182,100, but there are still plenty of opportunities for personnel to cash in if they’re willing to take on the right job. That immediately becomes obvious when examining the Corps’ 2013 Selective Reenlistment Bonus plan, which is the subject of this week’s Marine Corps Times cover story. First-term Marines are eligible to receive up to $69,750, and 18 military occupational specialties actually will see larger bonuses in 2013 than they did in 2012. With assistance from Manpower and Reserve Affairs out of Quantico, Va., we…
Justin Henderson left for boot camp in January 2011. More than 500 days later, he’s still there. Henderson is stuck at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. after catching pneumonia 13 days into training. He’s now awaiting a Physical Evaluation Board, which requires paperwork to pass through the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs to get his disability rating. He stays in a squad bay with Leonard Carter. Carter had to leave boot camp in June 2011 to have a tumor removed from his leg. He is also awaiting a PEB. Both have since been told by their doctors they’re…
Bad behavior, bad publicity and bad timing on it all has got the commandant on the road to get Marines to clean up their acts. It’s called the “heritage brief” and it doesn’t sound like any speech you’ve ever heard from Gen. Amos; a deep dive into recent horrible news headlines and a frank discussion of the abhorrent behavior that led to them. The brief is also a sort of remember-who-you-are session, something Amos called a “family discussion” rather than an “ass-chewing.” So far, only staff NCOs and officers have seen this brief, but there will soon be a video…
The tape test is the only DOD-approved method of measuring body fat for members of the military. But some say it is inexact (which the Marine Corps acknowledges) and that it is unfair to large Marines who have an excellent appearance but run the risk of ending up in the body composition program for exceeding height and weight standards for their age groups. This week’s cover discusses this issue through the case of Sgt. Joshua Legier, 28, who at 6-feet 3-inches tall and 246 pounds exceeds his weight limit for his height. He got even bigger when he was on…
Gunnery Sgts. Shawn and Janet Angell are swingers, and it cost both of them their Marine Corps careers. In this week’s cover story, they speak candidly about their lives, inside and outside the Corps. But they are just two of 10 enlisted Marines who found themselves caught up in a massive investigation at Officer Candidates School, the Quantico, Va.-based proving ground for all who earn the title Marine officer. The 2011 investigation led to accusations of sex with subordinates, adultery and group sex. In all, 10 Marines were court-martialed. Only one was acquitted. Read the full story in this week’s…
The Marine Corps’ top general wants an end to the monkey business that, since the start of 2012, has cast a steady, unflattering light on an institution defined in no small part by the pride it exhibits in being a disciplined, moral fighting force. “We are allowing our standards to erode,” Gen. Jim Amos, the service’s 35th commandant, laments in an internal memo distributed to all of his generals, commanding officers and sergeants major. Known as a White Letter, the sharply worded missive comes in response to “a number of recent widely publicized incidents” involving Marines misbehaving abroad. Complacent leadership…
First Lt. Josh Waddell ordered his men to take out an insurgent last fall in Afghanistan, and that decision has come back to bite him pretty badly. Now, the 25-year-old finds himself at the center of a contentious debate over the rules of engagement and the potentially disastrous career implications for those deemed to have violated them. When the incident occurred, Waddell was the executive officer for his company with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, which oversaw security in the Sangin district of Helmand province. He was subsequently fired from that job, given a lousy fitness report and told he would…
