The Marine Corps is reaching out to former Marines in its effort to grow the service to 207,000 Marines by 2011. Part of the effort to grow the force is to contact noncommissioned officers who have separated from the service and offer them the option of coming back in. The Marine commandant Gen. James Conway is sending a letter to every Marine who has gotten out in the last four years. It will say that "You may have already served your nation, but the job's not done." Everything is negotiable: four-year enlistments, two-year enlistments, airborne school, other military schools, and so on, plus NCOs should be able to come back on active duty with their former ranks. The service will begin recruiting an extra 5,000 per year beginning this year without reducing standards. The corps will be competing against the other services and especially against the Army, which has been slated to grow by 62,000 over the same period. To meet their goal the corps will probably put between 300 and 400 more recruiters on the street.

Standards are important to the Marine leadership, Conway said. "We do not want to sacrifice the quality of recruits simply to make the numbers." The Marine recruit standard is higher than that set by the Defense Department. The DOD standard states that 90% of all recruits must be high school graduates. The Marine standard is 95%, and the service is recruiting 96%. DOD officials said that only about one-third of 18 to 24-year-olds qualify to join the military. The 27,000 Marine increase will be put against those units experiencing the heaviest "deployment-to-dwell" ratios. The Marine Corps would like to get to the point of seven months deployed, 14 months at home station. The general said aviation units, military police and civil affairs are among the most heavily stressed units. The commandant is adamant that the corps must do something about deployment-to-dwell time. [Source: American Forces Press Service 16 Feb 07]