Gordon Lubold
Marine
Corps Times
Monday, January 22, 2007
The Marine Corps plans to ask up to 100,000 former Marines released
from the ranks since September 2001 whether they would like to
come back.
Speaking at the Pentagon on Friday, Lt. Gen. Emerson Gardner,
the Corps’ deputy commandant for programs and resources,
said many of those Marines had either hinted that they’d
like to have re-enlisted at the time they got out or were told
outright that no slots were available in which they could re-enlist.
“In the past, we’ve had a number of people who have
desired to re-enlist in a particular job specialty, and, unfortunately,
there is not enough room in the Marine Corps to keep them on,
so we have released them from active duty,” Gardner said.
“But anecdotally, we’re all familiar with people
that have gotten out of the Marine Corps, and you talk to them
a year or two later and they say, ‘You know, if I had to
do it over again, I sure would like to have stayed,’ ”
Gardner said.
“We’re going to offer them that opportunity. Our
commandant will make a call to arms and see what number of those
100,000 would be willing to come back on active duty,” Gardner
said.
He did not detail how those Marines would be notified or asked
to come back, but he indicated that given the Corps’ intention
to grow by more than 20,000 Marines over the next five years,
the initiative could come in handy.
The Corps has about 180,000 Marines, but Defense Secretary Robert
Gates announced last week that it would grow by about 22,000 people
at a rate of about 5,000 per year to a total end strength of 202,000
by 2012.
The Army, which stands at about 507,000 soldiers, will grow to
about 547,000 over the next five years, or by about 8,000 per
year.
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