Q & A: Top enlisted Marine speaks out

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In his 32 years as a Marine — nearly half as a sergeant major — Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent has done a few things.

Embassy duty in Panama and Zaire. Two tours on the drill field. Numerous military specialties, including parachute rigger, gold-wing qualified with multiple jumps.

He was meritoriously promoted to gunnery sergeant in less than nine years, and served as sergeant major of I Marine Expeditionary Force in 2004 when now-Commandant Gen. James Conway commanded the unit in Iraq.

For more than a year, Kent has been Conway’s top enlisted Marine, advising and supporting the Corps during two wars, the push to add thousands of additional Marines to the active-duty ranks and a difficult operational tempo.

We caught up with Kent in his Pentagon office on July 23, wearing cammies and nursing a big glass of water after morning PT. In a candid, wide-ranging interview, the 16th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps painted a positive picture of a service that is getting the job done despite personal sacrifices, long hours and multiple combat rotations.

He expressed frustration at the rise in motorcycle deaths, his desire to get Marines more time at home, and the need to empower NCOs at home as well as in combat.

Kent also talked about physical fitness, overweight Marines and the Combat Fitness Test, which he expects to run in August with Conway.

The conversation is presented below, edited only for space and clarity.

Marine Corps Times: After traveling across the Marine Corps and talking to troops around the world, what’s your opinion on the status of the force?
The Marines are doing great, as you know. I mean, throughout the Marine Corps, especially over in combat.

That’s our number one focus, the Marines in combat right now. If you look at Iraq, it’s pretty stable, especially out in western Iraq. It’s really, really stable out there. The Marines have done a great job.

Right now, if you talk to the average Marine over in Al Anbar, they are bored. I’ll be quite honest with you. I mean, you talk to them, we’ve got infantry battalions that go over now and they don’t fire their weapon — not one — in anger. But they also know that that’s a positive turnaround, so that’s a good thing for us. But you get the young Marines, and you know how it is, they want combat.

If you look at it, we just re-enlisted 1,140 Marines over in Iraq, and 90 percent of those Marines re-enlisted to stay in the operating forces. Not to take a break, but to stay in the operating forces. Three hundred Marines asked the retention team if they can re-enlist and go to Afghanistan — and this is over in Iraq.

So right now, we’re pretty positive. The recruiters are doing really good and we will meet our mission of bringing the active-duty Corps to 202,000 Marines by the end of next year, which is about two-and-a-half years earlier than what we thought. That’s a good- news story.

Right now, we have Marines — squad leaders and infantrymen — getting bonuses to stay, like, an additional two years in the infantry. And that’s working. Matter of fact, my nephew is one of those. He was with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, and now he decided to re-enlist for a bonus, and he’s staying in the infantry. Now he’s on the East Coast in an infantry battalion.

MCT: Do you worry that by allowing someone to re-enlist and stay in the operating forces perhaps you run the risk of allowing them to burn out?
No, not really. Because I would tell you, if you talk to the average Marine, that’s what they came into the Marine Corps to do, is to deploy. Now, the leadership is very cautious to keep an eye on Marines like that, to ensure that we’re not burning them out. That’s why the commandant really wants to grow the force to 202K, so we can give the warriors more dwell time back in the States.

The commandant’s goal is to give 14 months dwell time for every seven months deployed. That’s his goal right now, and we’re going to get there. We’re not now.

MCT: Is it still a 1-to-1 ratio?
It’s still 1-to-1 right now, but we’re growing for that purpose, so we won’t burn the warriors out each and every time. But I will also tell you that we have Marines who have volunteered for three, four, five deployments. But the leadership has to keep a very close eye on those Marines, and that’s a great point, so there won’t be a burn-out period.

MCT: What do you consider your current priorities?
Priority right now is to continue the focus for combat. Also, another key people don’t understand is — us in the Marine Corps understand it, and you probably understand it — one of the most brittle parts for us in this whole equation is our families. I mean, our families are as important as ever. They’re supporting the Marine, they’re going through quite a bit and they’re sacrificing so much. So, the commandant has refocused millions of dollars back into our family support.

MCT: Is there anything coming soon that Marines can expect to see that is in the works?
Near-term is the Combat Fitness Test and the change with the Body Composition Program. That’s going to come to pass here very soon. And the Marines, you know, they have asked the commandant, “Hey, sir, you know, we have a PFT to test our physical fitness. Do we have anything that tests our combat fitness?” And they were right. I mean, we don’t go to combat and carry our wounded warriors with tennis shoes, green PT shorts and green short-sleeve shirts.

When you’re in combat, you’re in full gear most of the time. This Combat Fitness Test is going to test our combat fitness, and it’s long overdue, it really is. But we’re still going to keep the PFT that tests our physical fitness. So, that’s going to be one of the things that they’re going to see coming to pass very soon.

MCT: Any idea when it’s going to happen?
It should be coming to pass by next month. The order should be on the street by early next month. So, that’s going to be coming out very soon, and that’s going to tie in with the Body Composition Program.

MCT: Has the CFT plan changed substantially from what we’ve heard about earlier?
It’s going to be events like the body drag, the [880-yard run], those certain events in there. What you probably heard about earlier, it won’t change much.

MCT: Is there still going to be an introductory period, before it starts to count?
Yes, and the key thing to this program is it’s going to allow them to train for things in combat. So, yes, they’re going to have the opportunity to prep for it before we actually put it in play.

Now, I will also tell you that the Combat Fitness Test will not be done at the same time as the PFT (laughs). There were a lot of rumors out on the street about that, and it will be done at separate times.

Me, I like to work out, and I probably couldn’t even do the CFT and the PFT on the same day.

MCT: Have you tried the CFT?
No, we’ve scheduled to do it in about two weeks.

MCT: Who are you going to do it with?
The commandant (grins).

MCT: Planning to throw him over your shoulder?
Yeah (laughs). You know, the commandant is very much into physical fitness. He is there, and … he leads by example, and the Marines see that. So, I don’t think I’ll be carrying him, but he’ll be carrying me (laughs).

MCT: Why change the Body Composition Program?
We have some Marines that are getting out of shape in the Marine Corps. Every Marine came in the Marine Corps because we hold higher standards, and we got feedback from the leadership and from Marines that, “Hey, our standards are kind of slipping on weight control.” So the commandant is getting us back, refocused, on the weight control program. The good thing about this program coming out is that for enlisted Marines, the senior enlisted with that unit will ensure that they control all enlisted Marines with this Body Composition Program. On the officer side, it would be the [executive officer.] There will be a grace period, because we know Marines have to get ready for this.

The order is going to hit the street probably at the same time as the CFT. What the order is going to basically say is, “OK, you can have a grace period. The senior enlisted or the XO is going to get the warriors that are not within standards, bring them in and say, ‘This is what you need to do.’” To ensure that we are safe, as far as them losing weight, we’re going to get them to medical and we’re going to start working with them.

Nothing is going to go in their record initially, but they will be counseled. We’re going to give them a couple of months to try and fix the problem if they are not within standards. If they make the standards, then that’s fine. If they don’t make the standards, leadership will bring them back in and say, “You haven’t made the standards. This is what you need to continue to try and get there.”

There’s going to be some grace period for these Marines, because we don’t want to go out and just jam warriors. We want to make sure that we give them an opportunity to lose [weight].

But, we have a standard. Once that grace period is over with, it’s going to be a formal weight control program and we will monitor that.

MCT: And there was talk of the Military Appearance Program?
Even if you do make the weight control, how does the Marine look in uniform?

MCT: That’s a new concept?
Actually, we had this years ago. The Military Appearance Program, we had way back.


To read the full interview, please go here ---> http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news...peaks_080308w/