thedeuce00
09-03-2009, 07:06 AM
The Marine Corps does a fabulous job with recruiting. We have seen time and again while the other services struggle to meet their recruiting quotas, the Marine Corps not only achieves its goals, but routinely surpasses them. However, the Marine Corps as an institution does a less than stellar job at retaining qualified Marines in the Corps. While the Marine Corps has tried to fix the problem by throwing money at it (some 1.6 billion dollars), this solution has proven to be ineffective at best, as we are still hemorrhaging eight to fifteen year veterans at a cyclic rate. Sure, I enjoy having $60,000 in my pocket after reenlistment. However, the fresh smell of a flush bank account will fade after time and will quickly be replaced with a bitter Marine who realized that $60,000 doesn’t last for four years, hence the phrase “money can’t buy you happiness”.
The solution to this problem is not easy, nor is there a “blanket solution” that can be applied to all Marines looking to reenlist. The Marine Corps itself has an enormous amount of incentives to get Marines to reenlist. While we don’t boast the same amount of bases throughout the world as the Army or Air Force, we do have billets there which Marines can likely fill. The Department of Defense also offers a substantial number of training courses, which could be made available to all Marines. While not every Marine can go to jump school, it’s likely that not every Marine wants to go to jump school. The underlying theme here is career planners, commanding officers, Sergeants Major, monitors, occupational field sponsors, etc…need to sit down with the Marine and ask what he or she wants. This is about the time when the time honored idiom “the needs of the Marine Corps” will come to the lips of our veteran Marines; another old favorite is “do it for the love of the Corps”. While I understand many of these veteran Marines did not have a fatherly or motherly figure in the Corps to sit down with them and find out their individual desires and interests, why treat your younger Marines in the same fashion?
As I said previously, it will take some time and effort to meet every Marine who is coming up on their end of active service and determine why they are getting out after a fairly successful twelve years in the Marine Corps. Once we’ve discovered what the Marine wants, it will probably take a little more effort to try and make this young (or old) Marine’s dream come true. Contrary to popular belief, most Marines don’t want anything bizarre or outlandish; often times 1) Marines want to know that what they do matters, 2) they are being sent to training that matters 3) the training they were sent to will somehow complement their skill set and be utilized in a follow on assignment and 4) that there is something more than a 50% pension and worn down knees waiting for them at the end of the finish line.
The solution to this problem is not easy, nor is there a “blanket solution” that can be applied to all Marines looking to reenlist. The Marine Corps itself has an enormous amount of incentives to get Marines to reenlist. While we don’t boast the same amount of bases throughout the world as the Army or Air Force, we do have billets there which Marines can likely fill. The Department of Defense also offers a substantial number of training courses, which could be made available to all Marines. While not every Marine can go to jump school, it’s likely that not every Marine wants to go to jump school. The underlying theme here is career planners, commanding officers, Sergeants Major, monitors, occupational field sponsors, etc…need to sit down with the Marine and ask what he or she wants. This is about the time when the time honored idiom “the needs of the Marine Corps” will come to the lips of our veteran Marines; another old favorite is “do it for the love of the Corps”. While I understand many of these veteran Marines did not have a fatherly or motherly figure in the Corps to sit down with them and find out their individual desires and interests, why treat your younger Marines in the same fashion?
As I said previously, it will take some time and effort to meet every Marine who is coming up on their end of active service and determine why they are getting out after a fairly successful twelve years in the Marine Corps. Once we’ve discovered what the Marine wants, it will probably take a little more effort to try and make this young (or old) Marine’s dream come true. Contrary to popular belief, most Marines don’t want anything bizarre or outlandish; often times 1) Marines want to know that what they do matters, 2) they are being sent to training that matters 3) the training they were sent to will somehow complement their skill set and be utilized in a follow on assignment and 4) that there is something more than a 50% pension and worn down knees waiting for them at the end of the finish line.