FEATURE ARTICLE

January 2005

Marine Reservists Ready, But Equipment Beaten Up

by Harold Kennedy

Marine reservists now preparing for combat in Iraq are “well-trained and well-equipped,” but their older ground vehicles and aircraft have been taking a beating, according to Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, head of the Marine Corps Reserve.

The 14,000 Marines and sailors who will deploy to Iraq starting this month will include members of Reserve units from around the country. They have been preparing for the move since October, when they first learned the specific dates and plans for their mobilization, McCarthy told National Defense.

“We now will support them as they execute the plan,” he said. To keep their fighting edge, Marine Reserve units each year participate in more than 20 large training exercises around the world. But, he added, some of their equipment is aging and needs to be replaced.

The percentage of Marine reservists who have been activated since the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States is “probably the highest of the four military services,” McCarthy said. “That’s because of our small size.” The Marine Reserve, in total, is half as large as the Army Reserve and less than a third the size of the Army National Guard.

During the coming deployment, the percentage of Marines serving in reserve units who have been activated since 9/11 will exceed 70 percent, McCarthy said. A little more than 6 percent have been activated more than once.

The organization—headquartered in the French Quarter of New Orleans, La.—includes more than 98,000 reservists in 289 units at 185 sites across the nation. Of those, about 58,000 are in the Individual Ready Reserve. These are Marines who have finished their active-duty obligation, are not affiliated with any local reserve unit and do not attend drills. They are, however, vulnerable to mobilization, if needed.

About 40,000 reservists actually are assigned to units, McCarthy explained. Of those, 28,000 already have been activated. In coming weeks, that number will climb.

The Marine Corps Reserve “is a combat organization,” McCarthy said. “We are primarily needed when the active-duty component is involved in major combat operations.” McCarthy knows this from personal experience, having led a platoon in Vietnam. A lawyer by training, he has commanded the Reserve since the summer of 2001.

Marine reservists are deployed for seven months, the same length of time as their active-duty colleagues, McCarthy said. Reservists, however, are activated for a full year.

“That gives us time to make sure that they are adequately trained and equipped before they deploy,” he said.

To meet the needs of commanders in Iraq, the Reserves have been retraining some members with job specialties with reduced demand in this war, such as artillery or combat engineers, to fill badly needed slots in civil affairs or military police units, McCarthy said. For most, the change is not difficult, he said.

“Every Marine is a rifleman,” McCarthy said. “We really believe that. It’s not that great a leap for a Marine with good field skills to learn how to perform security assignments.”

As for civil affairs, he said, most Marines already perform some civil affairs functions in their current assignments.

McCarthy recently visited reservists in Iraq. “The feedback that I got was very positive,” he said. “They know why they’re there. They know this is a very tough fight.”

Once the reservists reach Iraq, “they become indistinguishable from every other Marine there,” McCarthy said. One reason: All have been issued the new combat uniform, with the digitally designed camouflage pattern. Also, “they see exactly the same action as every one else. They’re in the thick of it,” he explained.

Like their active-duty counterparts, the reservists are taking their share of casualties. “Since the beginning of the global war on terror, 30 Marines from this force have been killed in action,” McCarthy said. “Since March 2004, eight have died, and 206 have been wounded.”

The Corps is doing everything possible to minimize casualties, McCarthy said. “Every Marine in-theater has the new Interceptor body armor and the SAPIs [Small Arms Protective Inserts, which designed to stop 7.62 mm rifle rounds],” he said.

“All of our vehicles are either up-armored humvees or have bolt-on plates. That’s putting extra weight on the vehicles, and wearing them out faster, so there’s a tradeoff,” McCarthy said. “But clearly the armor kits have saved a lot of lives, so it’s not a hard choice.”

The problem with putting bolt-on armor on the sides of humvees is that it doesn’t provide any protection in the wheel wells, McCarthy said. “Unfortunately, that’s where the feet are. We’re fixing that.”

Overall, McCarthy said, the Reserves’ gear is taking a beating. “Combat is inevitably tough on equipment,” he said. “From weapons to aircraft, [our equipment] is performing very well, but we are just using it up.”

The vehicle fleets, in particular, are being stressed “at a very high rate,” he said. The Reserves are in the process of replacing their aging A1 Humvees with the A2 variant, but the process isn’t expected to be complete until 2009. The existing 5-ton truck fleet also is being upgraded with the medium tactical vehicle replacement.

In addition, he said, “we’re really wearing out our amphibious assault vehicles.” AAVs are tracked vehicles that can travel from amphibious assault ships, through rough seas to shore and then go deep inland with up to 21 combat-ready Marines each. The AAVs, however, are now three decades old and require a lot of maintenance.

The Marines plan to replace the AAV with the next-generation expeditionary fighting vehicle, which is faster than the existing model both on land and sea. But the EFV won’t be ready until 2008, and it will be a while after that before the Reserve acquires it.

In aviation, McCarthy said, his top concern is the CH-46E Sea Knight. The Marines’ medium-lift assault helicopter is 40 years old, and demands increased investments of manpower and money with each passing year, he said. Maintenance requirements are increasing by about 8 percent each year. For every hour the CH-46E is airborne, it requires 37 hours of maintenance.

The Sea Knight and the similarly aged CH-53D Sea Stallion heavy-lift helicopter are supposed to be replaced by the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. The Osprey has been troubled by a long string of crashes, resulting in 30 deaths, since its first flight in 1989. Those problems, however, have been resolved, according to program officials, and the aircraft is now scheduled to begin operational evaluation trials this year. That’s the last step before a decision is made to put the MV-22 into service, possibly in 2006.

Even if that occurs, officials acknowledge that it will be years before the MV-22 finds its way to the Reserve.

Meanwhile, the command’s communications gear “is in pretty good shape,” McCarthy said. Since the war started, the Reserve has focused on more rapid fielding of tactical radios, including the PRC-117 satellite, PRC-150 high-frequency and PRC-148 squad radios.

The morale of the force has been relatively high, McCarthy said, in part because of the support from reservists’ employers, which has been much stronger in this war than it was during Desert Storm.

“I was mobilized in 1990,” he recalled. Everyone was surprised by that war, including employers, he said. It erupted and ended very quickly, compared to the current conflict. In the intervening years, activations of reservists have been occurring frequently, especially since Bosnia. Employers have gotten used to the concept, and they have responded positively, McCarthy said. “They have gone out of their way to support the Reserves. It’s really phenomenal.”

When reservists return from deployment, the Corps strives to ease them back into civilian life, McCarthy said. “They have the option of leaving active duty as soon as we can process their papers or staying on for the remainder of the year if that suits their needs.”

Forty percent of Marine reservists are college students, McCarthy said. Many of them find it convenient, after deployment, to remain on active duty until the beginning of the next school term.

“We try to create flexibility to help them meet their needs. From a military policy standpoint, it makes good sense,” McCarthy said. “I would like to be able to go back to these units in a couple of years, if I need to do so, and redeploy them.”

Recruiting and retention, he said, “are things that you have to watch every day. The numbers look good now, but that could change.”

The 2005 defense authorization act contains a provision that could help in recruitment and retention of reservists. It provides educational assistance to reservists who have served at least 90 consecutive days on active duty. Previously, only service members who had served on active duty for two years were eligible for such benefits.

McCarthy looks for the Reserve and active-duty Marines to work together more closely. The process actually began years ago, he said, noting that in 1997, he was named commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division, the first reservist of his service to head an active-duty unit of that size. Since then, he said, the pace of integration has picked up.

“The war has drawn us together into a single integrated force,” McCarthy said. “Everybody realizes there needs to be one Marine Corps, not several.”

Back To Top