in Afghanistan. But to avoid a lull in pushing on the enemy between “fighting seasons,” we have kept the pressure on all winter long. To do that, the commander at the time, [Army Gen.] David Petraeus, asked for another battalion. So in February, we took the battalion from 26th MEU supporting operations off Pakistan. It stayed in Afghanistan until June, when we replaced it with another. Adding that seventh battalion
drove down dwell time at home. The best we got up to was about 11 months home for every seven months gone. In a perfect world, we would like 21 months home between deployments. But with that seventh battalion in Afghanistan, dwell ratio fell to 10 months home for every seven months deployed. For infantry guys, it’s going in the wrong direction.
Does the need to have that seventh battalion in Afghanistan slow Marine Corps plans to draw down force structure from 202,000? It could. The direction from Secretary Gates was to build the plan, but you will not come down in number until the Marines are out of Afghanistan. So if not through force cuts, how do we pay our bills or accommodate smaller budgets? We either pay with people or with our plans to reset and reconstitute equipment coming out of Afghanistan.
Is there a third factor that might [pay for military bills], one that makes a lot of folks nervous? I refer to personnel costs, things like TRICARE, pay raises, and retirement. Do you want those on the chopping block, too? All service chiefs have been unanimous for taking a very hard look at the benefits package. The last time there was any raise in TRICARE copayments was 1995.
DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
Click here to read more from this interview with Marine Corps Comman- dant Gen. James Amos.
Well, this is 2011. All other health care plans across America have gone up. TRICARE, for a host of reasons, is probably the best health care plan out there. But is it reasonable? Those expenses are borne by the services. Of our $26.5 billion budget, almost 60 percent goes to manpower.
Is the Marine Corps’ manpower number going up? If we keep the manpower number the same and benefits continue to go up, if the number of retirees continues to increase, if retirees continue to live long as they have been, then costs of manpower will increase. Interestingly, the Marine Corps
manpower model is different than the other services. We are younger. Our average age is 25.1 years [old], or four years [younger] than soldiers, airmen, or sailors. Forty-three percent of Marines are lance corporal and below. To do the work we do — physical, hard work in nasty places — takes young men and women willing to live in adverse conditions. If we age the force, bring in fewer youngsters, we probably are not going to have a Marine Corps willing to serve in 125-degree heat in southern Helmand Province, with 85 pounds of gear on our backs, chasing down the Taliban and getting shot at. You need 18- to 20-year olds who feel they’re bulletproof.
MO PLACE YOUR AD IN:
— Contributing Editor Tom Philpott is the author of the “Observation Post” column at
www.moaa.org and has produced the weekly syndicated “Military Update” column since 1994. His last article for Military Officer was “Guarding Against Disaster,” August 2011.
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NOVEMBER 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 83
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