New policy could simplify getting Marines to battle

ARLINGTON, Va. — Marines who have yet to deploy could be reassigned in order to be deployed downrange after just 12 months at an assigned station, a Marine message says.

The move would make it easier for those Marines to volunteer to go downrange, as well as for the Corps to deploy Marines where they are needed, said Corps spokesman Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson.

The change is part of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway’s plan to get every Marine into combat to relieve the stress on Marines who have been deployed several times.

In late December, Conway told Marines at Ramadi, Iraq, that about 66,000 Marines have not yet deployed to combat, of whom only about half are getting ready to deploy.

“Let’s get everybody to the fight,” he said. “That’s what they joined the Marine Corps for, OK? And I don’t think it’s that those people don’t want to go; I think it’s by and large that they’re being told they can’t.”

Read the rest at Stars and Stripes

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