Generals endorse plan to end grunt shortage

[unhappycamper]

Marines conduct a foot patrol in Haqlaniyah, Iraq. The Marine Requirements Oversight Council has OK'd a plan to end a shortage of infantry sergeants in squad leader positions.


Generals endorse plan to end grunt shortage
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Oct 17, 2007 16:27:09 EDT

The Corps can’t put infantry sergeants in every squad leader position designed for them because too many are assigned outside of the operating forces.

That’s why the Marine Requirements Oversight Council approved recommendations Oct. 5 to enlist infantry Marines on six-year contracts, meritoriously promote around 200 infantry corporals each year, offer a little something extra in squad leaders’ monthly paychecks and increase cash bonuses for those who agree to stay in a grunt unit upon re-enlistment, said a Marine Corps headquarters official familiar with the plan.

The MROC “advises the commandant on a wide range of corporate functions and issues” and is comprised of the Corps’ assistant and deputy commandants, according to information on the Corps’ Web site. It weighs in on policy and management issues, operational matters, force structure, resource allocation, war-fighting capabilities, future operational concepts and other critical issues.

It is unclear whether Commandant Gen. James Conway has seen the proposed changes, but a plan to attack the problem has been brewing for months. In an Aug. 15 speech, Lt. Gen. Ronald Coleman, deputy commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Va., said the Corps was studying what to do about the shortage of NCOs — primarily infantry sergeants — in the operational forces.

“We are doing nowhere near as well as we wanted to,” Coleman said in his speech.

There are approximately 2,400 rifleman sergeants in the Corps, but less than 900 in the operating forces. The rest are scattered throughout training commands, headquarters units and recruiting duty, according to a briefing of the plan obtained by Marine Corps Times. This is in addition to the hundreds of machine gunners, light armored vehicle crewmen, mortarmen, reconnaissance Marines and other infantry Marines also included in the MROC-approved plan.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/10/marine_infantry_sergeants_071017/