The Future Marine Corps; Expeditionary Force
In Readiness Or Day Care Center?
AUTHOR Major Thomas M. Ochala, USMC
CSC 1990
SUBJECT AREA
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TITLE: THE FUTURE MARINE CORPS;
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN READINESS OR DAY CARE CENTER?
I. Thesis: The potential for the Marine Corps to realize a significant
cut in end strength within the near future makes it essential to insure
the force structure remaining is thoroughly professional and efficient.
To effectively train and deploy, some of the disruptive personnel issues
that currently have a negative impact on readiness, such as the single
parent family, and abuse within the home, etc., must be addressed.
II. Background: Since the mid-1980's the Marine Corps has had more
dependents of Marines, then actual Marines. The costs of manpower has
been spiralling upwards while problems associated with this phenomenon
have the potential to negatively effect the Marine Corps' ability to
train and deploy in a dynamic expeditionary environment. The single
parent family, and child, wife, and associated alcohol abuse are but a
few of these ever evolving leadership challenges. The Armed Forces has
established high level bureaus and reorganized family programs and
services but it has not addressed the actual problem; that of the junior
enlisted Marine getting married at a very early age. This paper will
address these issues and their current and future impact on the Marine
Corps.
III. Recommendation: Although simple, these recommendations are rather
controversial. First I recommend that those with dependents should be
restricted from enlistment into the Marine Corps. Secondly, first term
Marines should be restricted from getting married until reenlistment and
with the approval of the Marines commander. Thirdly, those single
parents currently on active duty would have to be able to demonstrate
the ability to take care of their parental responsibilities while
displaying the flexibility required of their unit, be it deployable or
nondeployable.
If the Marine Corps expects to continue to be one of the premier
military organizations in the world, it will have to address these
serious personnel issues and solve them in the near, and much more
austere future.
TITLE: THE FUTURE MARINE CORPS;
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN READINESS OR DAY CARE CENTER?
OUTLINE
THESIS STATEMENT. The potential for the Marine Corps to realize a
significant cut in end strength within the near future makes it
essential to insure the force structure remaining is thoroughly
professional and efficient. To effectively train and deploy, some of
the disruptive personnel issues that currently have a negative impact on
readiness, such as the single parent family, and abuse within the home,
etc., must be addressed.
I. The shift in demographics within the military
A. A significant rise in the numbers of dependents
B. The junior enlisted, married Marine
C. The single parent in the military
D. Other special personnel considerations
II. The impact of these trends
A. The evolution of Family Services
B. Spouse and child abuse; its effect on the Marine, his family
and his unit
C. The single parent: effective, deployable?
III. Recommendations
A. Restrict the first term Marine from getting married
B. Getting a handle on our social welfare approach to
leadership
THE FUTURE MARINE CORPS;
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN READINESS OR DAY CARE CENTER?
Our Armed Forces are a microcosm of our society,
reflecting both its strengths and weaknesses. Although numerous
parallels can be drawn, there is one trend within our military
structure which is a complete departure from that of our society.
Recent studies indicate that Americans' on an average, are geting
married at a more mature age while statistics reveal marriages within
the Armed Forces are occuring at an increasingly younger age.
The impact of this has rippled throughout our Armed Forces. The
result has been spriralling manpower costs and the necessity for
complex assignment policies. This phenomenon has serious
implications which have caused unique leadership problems and
indicate a potentially serious degradation of our warfighting
capabilities.
The potential for the Marine Corps to incur a significant cut
in end strength makes it essential that the remaining force structure
be thoroughly professional and efficient. This substantial increase
in dependents and the number of single parent families have been
coupled with increased instances of spouse and child abuse. Special
dependent problems and the joint household issue must be addressed
and solved if the Marine Corps is to effectively train and deploy.
The fact that the active duty Marines are outnumbered by dependents
has resulted in increased manpower costs. There has also been a
significant increase of sensitive leadership challenges, with the
potential to seriously impact on readiness. During the course of
this examination these issues will be addressed, with an eye on the
future. Possible solutions to these problems will also be discussed.
What initiated the significant change in the nature of the
population within the Armed Forces, and specifically in the Marine
Corps? Although many theories have been developed for this change,
one seems to be the most obvious. This change is the recently
installed quality of life programs with emphasis on family programs,
considerable variable housing allowances', basic allowance for
quarters with dependents, and/or readily available base housing,
which has made the decision to marry, a lot easier for our junior
service members. On the surface it seems that the most difficult
financial hardships which may put a strain upon the marriage of young
people, have been addressed. In fact it has made it easier and
perhaps encouraged the younger service member to make the decision to
marry. This decision is often made without complete consideration
given to all facets of financial responsibilities, separations
through field commitments, extended deployments, immaturity and a
variety of other related stresses placed on a young married couple in
the military. In his remarks before the 1986 Russell Leadership
Conference, Major General J. Edward Cassity addressed this issue:
For the first time in our history, we have more
dependents of Marines than we have Marines. There
are many reasons why and how we find the Marine
Community in this state; a little more money,
better facilities, the promise of good medical
treatment and many more. I happen to think the
nomadic lifestyle and the barracks-type environment
existent in the military causes us to quickly
decide that we want to have someone to permanently
cling to. Whatever the reasons, we have more
people in our Marine Corps family than ever before
and we are operating at a torrid pace with all that
this provides in terms of separation and change.
Now we are getting to the crux of the matter. All
the ingredients are present for stress on a large
scale; lots of activity, lots of separation; lots
of change and lots of stress. 1
This stress is tough enough on the relatively better educated and
more mature officer and his family. However, for the nineteen year
old Lance Corporal existing in a "double-wide" in Stafford County or
outside the gate of Camp Pendleton, this stress can be
insurmountable. In what ways are these stresses manifested? Family
and alcohol abuse, financial problems, the single parent family and
an increasing requirement for expensive social programs are a few of
the effects. All of these problems have the potential to make an
impact on our readiness and deployability.
Although alcohol, family and child abuse, and financial
problems occur throughout the rank spectrum, the majority of
problems are found at the junior enlisted level. The financial
burdens, immaturity and stresses caused by lengthy separations all
play a role in creating disruptive and expensive readiness problems.
Compounding the day to day problems of the married junior enlisted
Marines are the duty stations to which the majority can be assigned.
Except for the North and South Carolina area the vast majority of
duty assignments in the Marine Corps are in high cost (and in some
cases extremely high cost) areas. In her address to the 1986 Russell
Leadership Conference, The Honorable Alice M. Stratton, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Personnel and Families addressed
this issue:
Here are the concerns about change that I have seen
and heard. First, PCS moves to high cost areas -
greater numbers of younger Sailors and Marines are
coming into the Corps married. We permit E1 through
E3 and their families to be shipped to high cost
areas like Hawaii, and they are moving in increasing
numbers. A) The Sailor or Marine and his family
cannot afford to live in Hawaii once there and, B)
The young Sailor or Marine and his family often do
not yet have the resources to make a self contained
island of quality family life. They are far removed
from the supports of extended family and describe
being in Hawaii as a cultural shock. 2
Thus the stage is set for the myriad of issues that can pose
problems to the stability of the young family. Ultimately these
problems, if not solved, could result in the next point of
discussion, that of, the single parent in the Armed Forces and the
Marine Corps.
As of late 1986 there was an estimated 50,000 single parents
with custody of their children serving in the Armed Services, the
exact total is unclear because of each service using different
methods to calculate their respective tallies. 3 The problems
associated with this phenomenon are substantial. Daycare, for
example, is expensive, and has had growing impact on training,
readiness, deployability and morale of the force, overall. In his
article "Single Parents and the Marine Corps," in the January 1989
edition of the Marine Corps Gazette, LtCol Steven M. Hinds states,
Singular responsibility for ones children leaves
little flexibility to respond to the rapidly
developing situations that require significant
adjustments of custodial care. Even relatively
minor changes to daily routines, such as duties,
shift change and field exercises can cause serious
stress to in-place and working support systems
unless backup, on-call options and planned for and
available. Even under stable conditions
maintaining adequate support can be difficult.
When the unyielding demands of operational
requirements are imposed, the difficulty of single
parents to accommodate these demands, as well as
the significance of the decisions each has to make,
becomes more clear. 4
The single parent families resolve, dedication and attention
to duty, in the majority of cases, have not been questioned.
However, their inherent lack of flexibility, needs for special
considerations and the support systems they require are becoming an
increasing strain for the Marine Corps and the Armed Forces as a
whole to endure. The general consensus that while many single parent
Marines perform superbly and refuse special consideration for
assignments, the single parent is more committed to a fixed work
schedule in which short or no notice commitments create difficulties
for the parent. While special treatment can be argued, commanders
cannot and will not ignore the realities of child care. 5
The question has to be asked; is this fair? Fair to the
other Marines, who often quietly bear the brunt of these special
arrangements; fair to the Marine Corps, already realizing a
difficult, demanding, operational tempo, or fair to the service
member, or their children? An example of a soldiers experiences as a
single parent was related in the article "Single Parents Struggle in
Military" in The Washington Post, September 3, 1986 by Molly Moore,
in which she states:
Sgt. Haskins' experience is representative of the
problems facing, many single military parents,
according to military officials. Soon after he won
custody of his daughter following a divorce,
Haskins was transferred to Fort Belvoir from the
unit in Germany where he had served 10 years. "It
was a deployable unit," Haskins said. "We weren't
welcome there." Haskins said he discovered his
supervisors weren't much more receptive at his new
assignment. Because babysitters were difficult to
find at 5 a.m. when, Haskins was required to report
for physical training, he brought young Natalie
with him. That ended with letters of reprimand in
his personnel file and orders forbidding him to
bring his daughter. 6
Another relatively new trend which has had a significant
impact on unit effectiveness is the percentage of single women
Marines who become pregnant. Although service wide statistics were
unavailable, an analysis of a headquarters battalion at Twenty-nine
Palms, by the battalion commander is provided.
During the last 12 months, 11 percent (9 of 77)
single women Marines in my battalion became
pregnant. Twenty-two percent (2 of 9) of those
Marines chose both to have their babies and stay in
the Corps. The remainder chose administrative
separation..., Of concern from a single parent
standpoint is that the number of Marines involved
tend to be the more junior first termers, very
young and inexperienced to life. 7
The dramatic changes throughout the world has forced an
examination of the structure of the defense department. Before the
potential for severe personnel reductions was realized, the Marine
Corps had the ability to cope with the difficulties and special
considerations of the single parent. However, should the Marine
Corps realize those cuts envisioned, will it be able to absorb such
disruptive personnel problems while under the demands of mission
accomplishment in an expeditionary environment?
Another growing trend which demands special attention by the
manpower managers is the dual-service couple. A primary concern when
considering the dual-service couple are those couples desire for
joint domicile which requires the monitors to coordinate the
assignments of two people. There is also concern about the
deployability of couples with children because they, like single
parents, do not have a civilian spouse expected to assume parental
responsibilities. 8 In an organization as small as the Marine Corps,
reassignments and transfers are very personal and MOS specific.
Juggling two often very different career patterns and getting them
into the same geographical area is not an easy task. The effort and
time expended is often disproportionate to considerations given to
families of one service member.
With the change in demographics within the Armed Forces and
specifically the Marine Corps, some significant changes and
leadership challenges will have to be dealt with in order to provide
a flexible effective force structure. Perhaps the single greatest
change the Armed Force has initiated in response to these
evolutionary personnel trends, is the creation of high level
positions which in turn, have created new and reorganized old family
service programs. While these new bureaucracies all seem to have the
interest of the service family at heart, they are still, in fact,
bureaucracies.
In the "old days" the family service center was where you
went to borrow a punch bowl for a party or some pots and pans to get
through a transfer. Today the family service centers are full
fledged social welfare agencies, handling matters from job placement
for dependents, to child and spouse abuse. As a battalion executive
officer, my experiences working with them has resulted in mixed
emotions. The individuals that work within the system are totally
professional, committed, and highly competent. However, when in a
committee setting, with the responsibility of resolving the intimate
and personal problems of Marines under my charge, they tended to look
at those Marines as "cases," often becoming jaded during the
"briefings" on those Marines and their "problems." They were also
inclined to second guess decisions made by the command concerning
those Marines, and in a few cases hinted to question the commands
resolve in taking care of the Marines and their problems.
In a seminar discussion at the 1986 Russell Leadership
Conference, the evolution of these services and the social welfare
phenomenon was discussed.
Is it possible that we have developed a system of
programs by which we do not really solve the
problem but instead take ownership of the problem
from the individual. Offering the Marine and/or
his family a plethora of agencies and solutions
that assume his/her problems/responsibilities tends
to reduce them to just by standers in the solution
process. We tend to be breeding a sort of "Welfare
Society" full of dependents rather than a Corps of
self-aware, self confident leaders capable of
handling their own problems. Marines must be held
accountable and responsible for their own life,
Leaders must get involved and provide the tools,
knowledge and experience necessary to permit their
Marines to cope with the stresses and problems
associated with military life. 9
Perhaps the single greatest and most serious issue the family
service networks face is that of spouse and child abuse in the home.
Very often it is directly related to alcohol abuse by one or both
parent and is normally found in the young junior enlisted family,
although abusive families and can be found within the officer and
noncommissioned officer family structure at a similar rate. When
examining the reasons for an abusive home and the family at risk, the
one cause that seems to resurface again and again is stress.
... the domino that seems to start the stack
tumbling - is stress. Stress in the military can
take many forms, including separation, transfer,
and the accompanying loss of friends. Young
parents, because of separation and frequent
transfers, cannot call upon the "extended family"
(grandparents, close relatives, etc.) for help and
counselling in dealing with stress and crisis.
They often feel ostracized because of low rank or
their military status. A lack of choice in job
placement, loss of job satisfaction, authoritative
management styles, high risk jobs and family
conflicts also create stress, which then increases
the likelihood of abuse. 10
The effects of an abusive family on a unit is considerable
and disruptive. The attention required by the command in monitoring
a single case and the coordination required with the specific family
service agency "handling" the case is not only costly but, both time
consuming and inefficient. I am not trying to imply that the
commander should not be "bothered" with such "non-warrior" issues; to
the contrary, these problems have a direct impact on the efficiency
of his command and must be handled with skill and compassion.
However, if a battalion commander is faced with five or six active
cases he could find himself spending the proverbial "ninety percent
of his time with the ten percent." The bottom line is that family
abuse hurts the Marine, his family and his unit. It will affect the
individual and his readiness to do his job. When individual
readiness is affected, unit readiness will also be affected. 11
In revisiting the single parent issue as to its impact on
efficiency and deployability, the most pressing question is whether
the single parent is flexible enough to be trained and deployable
in the future, fluid expeditionary environment? As stated
previously, the day to day performance of most single parents in a
static, regulated working environment is generally very good.
However, once that schedule is upset through extended training or
deployments, the difficulties of child care can become difficult, at
best. Often the individual is rendered nondeployable or incapable of
executing their responsibilities within the unit. When these
problems are looked at on an individual basis, they generally take
care of themselves. Commanders make special arrangements and the
single parents' fellow Marines often pick up the slack. With the
pending force reductions and the unlikely reduction of the Marine
Corps' deployment responsibilities, will we be able to effectively
make special concessions or pick up the slack for the single parent?
Deployments where one or two good Marines are
constantly being over used due to limited number of
deployable Marines in the unit are well
documented. These Marines end up in a deployment
revolving door where they are constantly coming and
going while others never deploy. The resultant
outcome is that the producing Marine does not
reenlist because he/she and their problems would
not have the attention, support and consideration
afforded in the Corps anywhere else. We therefore
tend to perpetuate and increase our group of
Marines with restrictive problems while depleting
our group of strong performers. 12
As in the case of the single parent, other special interest
groups have the potential to adversely disrupt the manning of
deployable units and overseas assignments. The dual active duty
family also carries with it the potential to negatively impact on the
flexibility required of monitors and personnel officers to
adequately, and fairly flush out deployable units without undue
concern for the special requirement imposed by dual assignments. Is
this special attention and consideration fair to the force as a
whole, and does it punish those Marines without special requirements
that can be moved and deployed a lot easier, and with very little
notice?
The evolutionary personnel challenges resulting from our
liberal policies toward the marriage of our junior enlisted and
accommodation of special interest groups with unique personal
problems, has the potential to seriously degrade the Marine Corps'
ability to train and deploy in the future. In the case of problems
associated with young married families, i.e. abuse within the home,
financial problems etc., we have established considerable family
service programs that address the symptoms without addressing the
actual problem.
Although my recommendations are not new and are relatively
simple, they are controversial and will undoubtedly stir emotional
discussion. Instead of treating symptoms we should go to the root of
the problem by restricting junior enlisted Marines from getting
married during their first enlistment. First and foremost, we should
restrict enlistment to singles only, and require them to remain
single throughout their first term. In doing so, a considerable
reduction in the other problems associated with the recent
substantial increase in dependents will result. In his article,
LtCol Hinds considered this as a solution to the problem.
The obvious solution is to restrict the primary
source of single parents, which is the increased
number of first term marriages. By reestablishing
the "corporal under four" limit to marriage without
command approval, the number of married Marines
would rapidly decrease and, in direct ratio, the
number of divorces that result in single parents.
The dual-service families would experience a
similar reduction since a significant number of
them are also first termers. 13
Arguments against, might include that this solution will
adversely hinder the recruiting effort. However, with the expected
reduction in force, the Marine Corps could be more selective in their
recruiting criteria and establish the "come in single and stay
single" as a requirement. Others might contend that restricting
marriage is a violation of rights and would not stand up in court.
However, the services have repeatedly been challenged in other rights
issues and have almost always come away with their programs intact.
The drug program and its accompanying urinalysis for example, are
still being argued in the private sector, but have stood in the Armed
Forces against several significant court challenges.
A recommendation to solve the issue of the single parent is a
little tougher to come up with, and is not as black and white as the
"stay single" proposal. The potential for an officer or senior staff
NCO with seventeen or eighteen years of service to become a single
parent suddenly, is a very real possibility. In the event of such a
circumstance, the commander on the scene has to be able to make the
call as to the potential for continued service. If the situation can
be accommodated with little negative impact to the efficiency or
deployability of the unit, there should not be a problem. If not,
some tough decisions would have to be made.
Finally, we have to get a handle on our social welfare
approach to leadership. The recently established family service
programs are vital, appropriate and necessary. They must however, be
reestablished as a tool for commanders to assist their Marines with
serious problems, and not as an overwatching bureaucracy with the
ability to usurp the prerogative of those commanders.
The future Marine Corps will be smaller, lighter, combat arms
oriented with significant strategic mobility. Marines will have to
be flexible and deployable at a moments notice. The structure will
have to be highly efficient in order to effectively project power in
the evolving expeditionary environment. In order to insure that the
Marine Corps continues to evolve as one of the worlds premiere
fighting organizations, these pressing personnel issues must be
addressed and solved in the very near future.
FOOTNOTES
1 U.S. Marine Corps, 1986 Russell Leadership Conference, Sep 5,1986,
encl. 2, p. 12.
2 U.S. Marine Corps, encl. 3, p. 2.
3 Molly Moore, "Single Parents Struggle In Military," The Washington
Post, Sep 3, 1986, Sec. A, p. 1.
4 LtCol Steven M. Hinds, "Single Parents and the Marine Corps," Marine
Corps Gazette, (Jan 89), p. 63.
5 U.S. Marine Corps, encl. 5, p. 22.
6 Moore, Sec. A, p. 4.
7 Hinds, p. 64.
8 Mady Wechsler Segal, "The Military and the Family as Greedy
Institutions," Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 13, (Fall 86),
p. 27.
9 U.S. Marine Corps, encl. 5, p. 8.
10 LtCol Carl L. Remmel, "Child Abuse and the Commander," Marine
Corps Gazette, (Mar 86), p. 31.
11 Remmel, p. 32.
12 U.S. Marine Corps, encl. 5, p. 6
13 Hinds, p. 65.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hinds, Steven M., LtCol, "Single Parents and the Marine Corps,"
Marine Corps Gazette, (Jan 89), p. 63-65.
Moore, Molly, "Single Parents Struggle In Military," The Washington
Post, Sep 3, 1986, Sec. A, p. 1. 4.
Remmel, Carl L., LtCol, "Child Abuse and the Commander," Marine Corps
Gazette, (Mar 86), p. 31-32.
Segal, Mady Wechsler, "The Military and the Family as Greedy
Institutions," Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 13, (Fall 86),
p. 27.
U.S. Marine Corps, 1986 Russell Leadership Conference, Sep 5, 1986,
encl. 2, p. 12, encl. 3, p. 2., encl. 5, p.6. 8. 22.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
