While some elements of future wars will change because of new technologies, laws, tactics, and international norms, the human dimension still will be central to the nature of war.1 If used correctly, technology can mitigate some uncertainty, friction, and human will, but it will never completely eliminate them. Thus, a key facet of future war will be having the right people in the right positions to carry it out.
The Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) is a flexible model that can adapt to a variety of situations, but many of the skills that will be needed within the MAGTF will change and expand over time. Marines will need to be proficient in an ever-changing array of new technologies, as well as in the low-tech “old-school” skills that will prove vital when technology fails or is compromised. Getting the right Marines into these positions will require the Corps change the way it manages careers, including how it manages assignments, compensation, promotions, and permeability between the active, reserve, and civilian sectors.
Permeability
For the Marine Corps, permeability is the ability of personnel with identified critical skill sets to transition seamlessly between active duty, the reserves, and the civilian sector. In a future operating environment, where major changes to the battlespace can happen overnight, applying this concept to get the right Marines to the fight will be vital to the Corps’ success.
Some gaps that can be addressed by permeability include:
1. Simplifying and streamlining the transition between active and reserve duty.
Studies have shown that workers of all generations desire more flexibility in the workplace and in their careers, millennials especially. 2 Some authorizations written into the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) give the services tools to improve career flexibility.
The Career Intermission Program (CIP) allows Marines to take a sabbatical for up to three years to pursue advanced education, civilian employment, or for family reasons, but examination of the numbers who this program to be statistically insignificant. Possible reasons for this are that the program requires a Marine to owe an active-duty commitment of twice the amount of time that they took off, spending time in the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) can negatively affect promotion potential, and many Marines are not aware of the program. CIP can be made more attractive to Marines by reducing their active-duty commitment after completing their sabbatical and allowing them to serve some or all of that commitment in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve (SMCR) or in an Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) billet, or by reducing the commitment to equal the time they took off.
A better option is to allow Marines to serve their “sabbatical” in the SMCR or as an IMA, instead of in the IRR, and return to active duty after completion. With this change, CIP could be used to fill perennial manpower shortfalls in the reserve component, maintain the individual Marine’s association with the Corps, and minimize negative impacts to promotion. Exposure to the reserves through CIP can dispel some of the myths and show some of the benefits of the reserves, such as increased career flexibility. This could lead to greater participation in the long term.
The Marine Corps can better align reservists’ civilian skills with force requirements by making civilian career skills easily searchable at the unit level. Starting around 2005, reservists were required to enter their civilian employment and relative job skills into Marine Online (MOL). Reservists have diverse skills that are not always present in the active force, yet many of these skills are not tracked or used in their Marine Corps duties. Currently, the process for searching for these skills using MOL is centralized and nonintuitive. Making this search more intuitive and available down to the platoon leadership level is critical to rapidly filling shortfalls. This could be accomplished with a simple interface extension on MOL that mirrors the system the individual Marine uses to enter his or her civilian occupation. Making this system easily used by unit-level leadership and administrators would provide commanders with lists of potential candidates that have skills relevant to the command’s needs.
Many reservists who have been out of the service for years also might want to return to active duty, but there are minimal opportunities to do so. Likewise, many active Marines may want to transition to the reserves for a few years to pursue civilian opportunities or to take time off for family. Other than CIP, there is no program that guarantees they will be able to come back to active duty. Streamlining the transition process can facilitate this. The Blended Retirement System, which is similar to a civilian 401k, also offers more flexibility than the legacy retirement system to make this a viable option.
Lateral entry, or the ability to directly commission officers in highly valuable career fields up to the rank of O-6, is also written into the NDAA. This may seem counter to the Marine Corps’ culture of starting at the bottom and working one’s way up, and it probably would not be a good option for filling leadership or combat arms positions that require years of experience at the tactical level. However, some skills that cannot be recruited at the entry level, or that take years to develop, may prove essential in future wars.
2. Improving the way the Marine Corps leverages IMAs and the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR).
After leaving active duty, most Marines enter the IRR, which offers many options for Marines to continue to serve, such as joining an SMCR unit or IMA detachment, filling a shortfall in an Active Duty Operational Support (ADOS) billet, or participating in the SMCR for points to maintain affiliation. The issue is many Marines who leave active duty after their first term of service never experience the reserve component. Even if they do decide to affiliate within their IRR period they are often demotivated by a convoluted reentry process that depends very much on a prior service recruiter they may never see in person. The Marine Corps can do a better job advertising the IRR—what it is and how it works. Another option is to allow Marines to remain in the IRR indefinitely if they choose. Once a Marine is dropped from the IRR it becomes more difficult to return to the service. Allowing them to remain indefinitely will ease that transition if they decide years later to return
3. Improved tracking and use of special skills.
Many Marines have specialized skills gained through civilian employment, continuing education, or even hobbies. When a Marine achieves a degree it is entered into their official military personnel file (OMPF) and populates in MOL by degree major and length of schooling, but the tracking and searchability of that degree is onerous. With respect to foreign language, few Marines take the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) to certify that they speak a foreign language. While they can self-profess that they speak a foreign language in MOL, many of those skills go unused since they cannot be verified until a Marine takes the DLPT. There also are few mechanisms to track skills or certifications Marines may have other than what is present in their OMPF, the Marine Corps Total Force System (MCTFS), or the various other data systems used by HQMC. Things such as self-taught computer programming, project management certifications, or mechanical skills learned in the civilian world can prove valuable in a variety of Marine Corps jobs but are not tracked in any coherent way. Incorporating a system where Marines can self-identify skills and certifications the same way they can self-identify language skills will give the Marine Corps more options to find people within the force with critical skills.
New Career Tracks
With rapid technological proliferation, being removed from one’s MOS for even a short time can cause loss of ability to perform a job, because many require constant training and hands-on use of new weapons and equipment, and many technical and tactical skills are perishable. While permeability is necessary to rapidly identify and assign Marines with specific skills in specific job fields, small-unit leaders in combat arms will need to remain with their units longer to take advantage of the extensive knowledge and experience necessary to perform their job.
For officers, the generalist “single MAGTF officer” concept might not be the best answer. More effective might be to give officers the option of pursuing either a generalist or specialist career track. Those who take the “single MAGTF officer” track will become the future senior leaders of the Corps, as they will have the broadest knowledge across disciplines. Those who follow a more specialized or technical track will become experts at leading tactical or technical units and staff sections at the division level and below.
For enlisted Marines, it may take years to truly master the skills to be an effective squad leader or platoon sergeant. An increasingly dispersed operating environment will require Marines at the squad and platoon level to be mature, independent, and well-rounded to a level beyond what has been required in the past. Incentivizing experienced NCOs and SNCOs to remain in the service may require changes to the way they are compensated. Examples of how this might work can be taken from the British and Canadian militaries, where NCOs can gain significant pay increases over the course of a career while remaining in the same rank.
A more mature operating force with personnel remaining longer in units will also serve to improve readiness. Regular personnel turnover presents both an administrative and a readiness burden to units. Every time a new group of Marines checks into a unit, they need to be administratively processed, trained, and often have to relearn some of the skills they haven’t put to use during years in a B-billet. A system in which a portion of NCOs, SNCOs, and junior officers remain with their units for several years will reduce some of this burden and ensure long-term continuity of leadership and lessons learned.
Thinking Long Term
A competitive civilian job market exacerbates the Marine Corps’ need to retain talent. The concept of permeability addresses this issue by giving Marines more flexibility to move between the active, reserve, and civilian worlds. Some of the skills that veterans are currently acquiring in the private sector may make the decisive difference 5, 10, or 20 years down the road. Unless there is a way to bring those people back into the force their skills will remain untapped. Permeability and varied career models will ensure that the Marine Corps has the right talent to succeed in an unpredictable operating environment now and in the future.
1. U.S. Marine Corps, MCDP-1, Warfighting, 20 June 1997.
2. PwC, University of Southern California, and the London Business School, PwC’s NextGen: A global generational study: Evolving talent strategy to match the new workforce reality, Summary and compendium of findings, 2013. Deloitte, 2018 Deloitte Millennial Survey, 2018.