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Operations and maintenance money in the Marine Corps has grown so tight that “commanders in the field literally are having to become accountants,” said Lieutenant General Robert B. Johnston, who took command of Marine Forces Atlantic on 8 July.
Interviewed while still the Corps’ deputy chief of staff for manpower and reserve affairs, Johnston suggested Marine leaders today spend an inordinate amount of time crunching numbers. "They have to look at every training evolution and say ‘How much is it going to cost me to drive these 17 tanks from Camp Pendleton to Twentynine Palms so I can run an exercise?’” Commanders, he said, even cost out "batteries for every radio when we go to the field. It’s at a level of detail unlike anything I’ve seen in 33 years” in the Corps.
For fiscal 1995, the Clinton administration requested a $60 million increase—3.2%—in the Marine O&M account, which stands this year at $1.86 billion. The House voted to give the Corps another $79 million, and the Senate voted to Give $178 million. Johnston didn’t comment on the adequacy of that amount but said nothing is going to waste.
“We are not throwing money away at anything. Quite the contrary, we are finding we can’t do all the things we'd like to do in training,” he said.
The drawdown ends for the Marine Corps this year with the size of the active force stabilizing at 174,000. “Like every other service,” Johnston said, “the Corps is concerned that defense budgets, particularly O&M accounts, won’t be large enough to support the force structure that remains.”
He acknowledged the Corps’ backlog of equipment maintenance and repair is growing. Tank crews are firing fewer rounds; air crews are flying fewer hours; and the Corps, unfortunately, is far behind the Army in the purchase of computer simulators, which are more cost-effective than training troops in the field.
While the Corps strives for new efficiencies, the pace of Marine operations hasn’t slowed. “We are still deploying squadrons at exactly the same rate and same geographic areas that we have been for several years,” said Johnston, who commanded Operation Restore Hope in Somalia from December 1992 to May 1993. “The average Marine in an infantry battalion in the Fleet Marine Forces is gone 44% of the time in a given year,” he said. “That tempo is a couple of percentage points higher than a few years ago. It is a function of having drawn down to 174,000 [active-duty Marines], Should we go much further, with no change in overseas forward presence or commitment, you would see [an] operational tempo higher than 50%.”
“At that pace,” Johnston said, Marines would be “flat gone too long.”
Sailors Earn More
Given the amount of time sailors spend at sea, it is no surprise that they earn more pay, on average, than their counterparts in the other services. After all, some draw sea pay or submarine
pay, and many pull down hefty reenlistment bonuses.
The pay disparity over a typical career, however, might be larger than many think. Promotion pace alone, it turns out, provides sailors with thousands of dollars more than paid to airman, soldiers, or Marines.
Each year, the Department of Defense releases data comparing time-in-service at promotion for both officers and enlisted members in the four DoD services. The latest figures, for fiscal 1993, show a familiar pattern in officer promotion and enlisted advancement: The Air Force and Marine Corps trail the Navy and Army.
For example, the typical sailor advances to the pay grade of E-5 after only 4.3 years of service, compared with 4.6 years for the soldier. 5.5 years for the Marine, and 7.3 years for the Air Force member. The pattern holds at every career point. The sailor needs 12.8 years to make E-7, compared with 13.9 years for the soldier, 14.8 years for the Marine, and 15.8 years for the Air Force member.
Service differences are less pronounced but still significant when officer promotion points are compared. For officers, however, the Marines trail the pack, with the Air Force a close third and the Navy again on top. For example. Navy officers, on average, attain the rank of 0-5, commander, after 15 and a half years. That’s nine months sooner than Army officers achieve equivalent rank of lieutenant colonel. Air Force officers reach 0-5 in 16 years, four months. Marine Corps officers, on average, need 17 years, seven months.
But how do promotion differences affect incomes? We took a look, using the 1994 military pay chart and assuming that current promotion-pace disparities remain constant through full careers. We also assumed quarters allowances for everyone is at the higher “with dependents” rate. Finally, for our formula we used Pentagon estimates of average variable housing allowances at every pay grade. The results provide a rough estimate of pay disparities created by promotion timing alone.
The typical Navy enlisted member would draw $588,300 in basic pay and allowances during a 20-year career, highest among the services. Next would be the soldier, pulling down $576,000. The typical Marine would receive $566,300; the Air Force member only $554,100 over a 20-year career. The largest promotion pay gap, between sailor and Air Force member, would be $34,200 over a 20-year career—6.2%.
To calculate promotion pay gaps among officers, we assumed 24-year careers. The typical Navy officer would receive $1,298,100 in basic pay and allowances, compared with $1,291,200 for the Army officer; $1,279,100 for the Air Force officer; and $1,271,300 for the Marine. The largest spread, between the Navy officer and the Marine officer, would be $26,800—2.1%.
Even in this age of jointness, when the services are moving toward closer cooperation in training, weapons development, and operations, Pentagon officials make no apology for promotion-rate disparities. The culprits, they say, are retention rates, which reflect the relative popularity of each service.
As long as working and living conditions in the Air Force remain more attractive, advancements will be slow. And as long as sailors face arduous sea duty and long months away from loved ones, they will add stripes at a relatively brisk pace.