USMC Reserves To Get Smaller, But Demands Will Grow

Cut the budget, but ask more of our reserves? Does that sound like a recipe for success?

That is precisely what is being cooked up by the U.S. Marine Corps. If you are member of the USMC reserves, you will be deployed to places like Bulgaria and Morocco for months at a time, says Lt. General Steven Hummer, the commanding general. An example is sites is the Black Sea Rotational Force, which is a six-month partnership with troops from Romania, Georgia and other Central Europe countries. The reserves will do more training of foreign forces because with fewer active duty forces available, they will have to pick up the slack.

Ironically, this plan is being put in place as the Marine Corps continue to have “difficulty filling junior officer billets.”

You can’t blame the Marines here. They are just trying to preserve their mission with fewer resources. But it seems that by making more demand on the reserves you are going to have a much harder time retaining good people.