Marine Corps will ask thousands to come back

By Gordon Lubold - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 19, 2007 22:23:02 EST

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.

I would head for the hills, as long as Bush is CIC.

Seems today’s military is a good place for the gang bangers to go for their training, they’ll probably get many Bloods and Cripps back, and maybe some MS13, and a few 18th street members who all need to be refreshed before they head back into their neighborhoods.

Well, I asked last year and they didn't want me back.

I guess the perused my medical records and figured I wouldn't be able to handle any addition broken bones and/or concussions. The last time I busted my self up was five broke ribs, multiple compound fractures of the right arm, a pretty good concussion, a ruptured kidney, and multiple contusions and abrasions. Just call me a clutz, I make Gerald Ford look as graceful as a ballerina.

It's still hard for me believe it's going on 7 years since I retired.

Don’t bitch gunny, it appears you’ve done well, your still upright and mobile eh. 7 years is nothing, my uncle was saying just yesterday how amazed he is that it’s been 61 years since he got out on a medical, he just turned 85.
I’ll go on calling you gunny, clutz doesn’t work for me :o)
How did you bust yourself up so well? Sounds like you jumped without your shoot?

Pleasantly surprised I haven't seen more critical comments in this thread

The military gets in your blood, and I would assume the camaraderie of the Corps instills that feeling even more. I can't count on one hand the number of Iraq War vets who have said that they want to return to help out their unit, but don't want to go back as well because of their family.

My wife has been out going on seven years this year, and she still feels the itch now and then. Of course, there is no way she'd go back in the way things are now, and her career field has been phased out and contracted out to civilians instead, which makes it even less likely that she'd seriously think about going back. We're really happy here IRR years were completed before this war broke out.

We was practising a vertical assault where a CH-46 swoops into a LZ and inserts a squad of troops. Like a dumb-ass I was standing at the opened back ramp to be the first one out on the ground. The bird came in too fast and the pilot stood the bird's nose up at about 45 degrees to slow her down and pooped me out the back along with 5 other Marines while we was still about 40 feet off the ground. I landed on a pine tree stump and smushed my radio and broke numerous bones, everyone else landed in some pretty soft sand and didn't get hurt beyond a few abrasions.

I knew I was hurt when I couldn't get up. It didn't hurt at first, I just couldn't stand up, matter of fact I tried to convince the Corpsman in the ambulance to just drop me off at the road to my office on the way to the Navy Hospital because it still didn't hurt. I guess he figured the bone sticking out though the back of my arm might eventually give me a few problems, eh?

They wanted to medical me out over that but I really had an objective of making 30 years, after 26 years it don't change what your retirement pay is but I had a personal objective to make 30 years of service.