Opportunities abound for veteran officers in the Marine Corps Reserve

About two hundred Marine Corps officers complete their active duty obligation, return to civilian life and enter the “1st Civ Div” every year.

Their motivations for leaving active duty service in the Marine Corps vary.

Some officers want to pursue civilian careers utilizing their university degrees. Many want to be closer to their home towns or just spend more time with their families. Others want to use their G.I. Bill to attend graduate school full-time.

Regardless of their reasons for getting out, many officers quickly find that they miss the camaraderie and esprit de corps that they experienced as leaders of Marines.

The opportunity to stay Marine

Career reservists can attest to the fact that reserve life is not easy. However, the dual life of reserve officer and working professional does enable those who choose it the opportunity to continue to wear the Marine Corps uniform and have the honor of mentoring some of America’s finest volunteers.

“The thing I’ve learned about Marines over the years is that whether they stay in four years or forty-four years, they’re Marines until the day they die,” said Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, commander of Marine Forces Reserve.

“There are a lot of pressures in people’s lives that will cause them to go off of active duty after their initial time (in service),” explained Kelly. “Sometimes family pressure, sometime it’s financial. In other cases, people just have different goals they want to accomplish in their lives. The beauty of being associated with the SMCR [Select Marine Corps Reserve] is that you can do both. You can go off and become a U.S. attorney. You can go off and teach college, get a PhD, teach high school, while at the same time not only remain affiliated with the Marine Corps, but remain for all intents and purposes, particularly in today’s world, an active duty Marine.”

The Marine Corps Reserve offers a myriad of ways to serve which can custom-fit your particular life situation.

Regardless of whether you are an engineer, lawyer, manager or consultant, the reserves offers you the chance to combine your military background and civilian expertise.

“I think of the particular giant, Danny Bubp, a (Reserve Marine) colonel who was essentially the advisor to the governor in Anbar Province,” said Kelly in discussing his experiences while commanding the I Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq from 2008-2009.

“He’s a colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and he’s also a member of the legislature of Ohio. He’s been a state representative and state senator of Ohio. What better guy could there be to sit there and talk about democracy, how to develop a budget, how to manage your staff, how the governor should interact with his provincial council. This is probably the single best example of the right guy in the right place at exactly the right time.”

Kelly cited the example of 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, a reserve unit headquartered in the New York City area that deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2008 with more than 100 career civilian police officers and firefighters in their ranks.

“I needed senior patrolmen, desk sergeants, maybe a lieutenant who could come on and teach the Iraqi police, mentor the Iraqi police on how to be ‘protect and serve’ police officers,” said Kelly. “I had a reserve battalion come out. Now, their primary mission was security force operations around Al Asad, and frankly I didn’t need eleven hundred Marines doing that.  Not that it (security at Al Asad) wasn’t an important mission.  But there were other ways of doing that. So we took a portion of the battalion, tasked them to do the security force and then sent the rest of them out under the battalion commander and his leadership, to the Syrian border and gave them a battlespace. They did a superb job up there and certainly continued to do that after I left.  I think that a little bit more of an older, more experienced individual brings something extra to the counter-insurgency fight, particularly when interacting with the Iraqi officials.”

For those who simply want a break from their civilian profession to get back to their Marine Corps roots, the Marine Corps Reserve can offer that, too.

Maj. Andrew Johnson, commanding officer of Battery O, 5th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, works as a scientist for a large research corporation in his civilian life. He commutes monthly from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. to Seal Beach, Calif. in order to lead his artillerymen. His motivations for serving are simple:

“Where else can you hurl 100 pound explosive projectiles downrange and get paid for it? I love what I do,” said Johnson.

The Marine Corps Active Reserve Team

The AR program is comprised of a small cadre of about 2,200 Marines, primarily seasoned officers and staff noncommissioned officers. This team is instrumental in the mobilization and deployment of reserve units and the day-to-day operations of Marine Forces Reserve.

AR Marines enjoy the same medical care and retirement benefits as their active duty counterparts. The only real difference is their mission, which is direct support of the reserve component.

Officers in the AR program are stationed primarily at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington D.C. and Quantico, Va., as well as at Marine Forces Reserve Headquarters in New Orleans.

The remainder of AR officer billets are dispersed across major reserve sites nationwide.

There are currently about 350 officers in the AR program. Their billets range across the spectrum from logistics and administration to aviation and operations.

Two AR boards are held annually. Both the accession boards and results are announced via Marine Corps Administrative Messages.

To learn more about the AR program, interested applicants should visit the Headquarters, Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs website.

Professional development and graduate-level education

Reserve officers have both the opportunity and obligation to further their development as professional military officers and business leaders of America.

All Marines Corps personnel, both active duty and reserve, have access to “MarineNet.” This web-based learning portal provides Marines the opportunity to study a broad range of subjects from technical MOS-related skills to an array of foreign languages.

There are also a number of non-resident professional military education (PME) opportunities such as weekend seminars for Expeditionary Warfare School, Command and Staff College and top-level schools.

These seminars are usually held one evening a week or one weekend a month for eight months out of the year. The standard schedule for completion is two years, but it can be extended for military deployment or other valid reason.

Most officer PME weekend seminar courses are held at various regions throughout the United States. Transportation costs from the reservist’s hometown to and from the seminar site is borne by the Marine Corps.

Reservists also receive retirement points, as well as full pay and allowances, temporary additional duty expenses and per diem for attendance at weekend PME seminars.

Maj. Gordon Hilbun, a management consultant from Atlanta, Ga., attends a weekend Command and Staff College seminar in Memphis, Tenn. every month while serving in the reserves as a regional liaison officer for Marine Forces North.

“Command and Staff provides in-depth training in national, strategic and operational-level systems, processes and structures, while also providing an educational experience that expands tactical thinking into an operational level mindset. Additionally, it provides an officer with the necessary credibility to become efficiently integrated into any operational level billet,” said Hilbun who, as a reservist, served as the commanding officer of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment in Iraq (2007-2008).

Opportunities also abound for reserve officers to attend full-time resident PME courses. Each year, dozens of reserve company and field grade officers are selected by a board to attend resident courses appropriate for their grade.

In addition to full-length PME at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va., reserve officers can apply for joint resident courses at various locations throughout the U.S. and abroad, most lasting from 10 to 12 months in duration. Selectees receive travel pay to and from the school site and full pay, allowances and retirement points while attending school.

Many of the services’ PME programs have a master’s degree option in conjunction with a certificate of course completion.

Some programs, such as the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, have cooperation agreements with civilian universities, wherein students take classes at both the military college and at a nearby civilian state university simultaneously. This will earn them a master’s degree from the civilian school, such as Kansas State University.

Regardless of which joint school officers are selected to attend, they all come back to the Marine Corps Reserve with different perspectives that expand the level of expertise in the reserve community.

“As senior field grade Active Reserve officers, we must be able to critically think and analytically attack solutions to various challenges,” said Lt. Col. Francis Piccoli, a career AR officer who is currently a student at the U.S. Air Force’s Air War College.  

“Top level school certainly provides a great basis for one to develop, enhance or enrich these cognitive skills.  Second, top level school broadens one's horizon to think and act in a strategic manner, which is so very important for field grade Active Reserve officers who are responsible for administering the Marine Corps Reserve or who are responsible for integrating the Marine Corps Reserve in the Total Force Marine Corps.  Third, it provides the Active Reserve program with an intellectual capacity that enables superb decision making on a plethora of strategic and operational issues that affect the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and its relevance for the Total Force Marine Corps.”

Piccoli, who entered the AR program as a captain in 1998, spent several years at Headquarters, Marine Corps and most recently served as director of the Marine Forces Reserve Public Affairs Office in New Orleans from 2007 to 2009.  He is on track to graduate from Air War College in June with a master’s degree in strategic studies and return to Marine Forces Reserve for another tour.

In recent years, selectees have attended the following courses:
Joint Advanced Warfighting School in Norfolk, Virginia
Naval Command and Staff in Newport, Rhode Island
U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas
Air War College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama
National War College at Ft. Leslie J. McNair in Washington, D.C.
Primary Reserve Army Operations Course in Ontario, Canada
Reserve Components National Security Course, National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
Reserve Officer National Security Decision Making in Newport, Rhode Island

Professional development opportunities are not limited to the schoolhouse. Congressional fellowships, internships, resident master’s programs at civilian universities and other educational opportunities are available to reserve officers, as well.

Reserve Warrior Training

Marine Corps Reserve officers who wish to get back into a warrior mindset can do so through a variety of opportunities.

Reserve officers can attend Marine Corps Marital Arts Program training, a Reserve Staff Training Program course or the Reserve Training and Readiness Oversight Program.

Course schedules vary, yet most are usually three to five days in duration, with one day of travel on each end. Travel to and from the courses is paid for by the Marine Corps.

For more information, interested officers contact their nearest Marine Corps Reserve unit.  To locate a unit, visit the Marine Forces Reserve website at www.mfr.usmc.mil and click on the “Reserve Units” locator icon.

Flexibility and the Individual Ready Reserve
While most people think of the Marine Corps Reserves as one weekend a month and two weeks a year, there are a number of different ways Marine Officers can serve their country in the reserve.

Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve can keep their skill sets current by participating in the Reserve Counterpart Training program, whereby they participate in various active component exercises throughout the year.

As mentioned, IRR officers can also earn pay and retirement points by attending weekend and resident PME.

The IRR offers a number of short-term and long-term mobilization opportunities for officers, ranging from annual IRR musters to full-length deployments. 

Upon completion of mobilization, IRR Marines normally return to their civilian lives and careers. 

For more information about the IRR and accompanying opportunities, visit the Marine Corps Mobilization Command’s website.

Mobilization and deployment opportunities

Some officers leave active duty because of the operational tempo.  They simply get tired of deploying and don't want to be in a constant cycle of being away from their families for long periods of time. 

The Marine Corps Reserve is unique in that most reserve units have a significant "dwell" time in which the units are not mobilized. 

For example, in the current force generation model, for every year a reserve Marine infantry battalion is mobilized, they have four to five years of dwell, in which the battalion's Marines drill one weekend a month and attend an annual training session of two to four weeks. 

Consequently, reserve officers typically know several years in advance the general time frame they can expect to deploy.  If they desire to deploy earlier, billets are frequently open for captains and majors to cross-deck to another battalion for the duration of the deployment.

Other temporary mobilization billets are open for all qualifying reserve Marine officers.

These frequently entail one-year orders to fill billets at major bases stateside or throughout the world. Many “hot-fill” billets are currently available to support overseas contingency operations in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.

Similarly, there are numerous other programs offering short-term job opportunities to both IRR and SMCR Marines.  These opportunities entail one-week to one-year orders to enable officers to serve in a way that is compatible with their schedules and lifestyles.

For more information about mobilization and deployments, contact the MFR G-1 or visit the Marine Corps Mobilization Command’s website or Facebook page.

Individual Marine Augmentee (IMA)

An IMA billet is a type of reserve affiliation with an active duty command vice a Selected Marine Corps Reserve unit, explained Maj. Brian Dibb, who has spent several years in an IMA status at various commands throughout Marine Corps.

There are currently more than 3,000 Reserve Marines staffing IMA billets throughout the United States and at select overseas locations.

Dibb’s IMA billets have taken him from Marine Forces Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida to Iraq with the 4th Assault Amphibian Bn.

He is currently the G-5 plans officer for Marine Forces North, where he spearheads Marine Corps’ efforts in its Defense Support of Civil Authorities program.

An IMA Marine officer may drill on a non-standard schedule that is mutually convenient for both the Marine and the active duty unit. The reservist receives standard pay, allowances and retirement points during this period.

“The Marine Corps Reserve gives officers much more flexibility with their careers than the active component. Reserve Officers enjoy much greater latitude with regard to billet opportunities, MOS opportunities and geographic location. Reserve officers span the spectrum in their civilian career fields which provides endless networking possibilities,” said Dibb, 37, who has spent the past four of his 13 years in the Corps as a reservist.

The IMA program also assigns Reserve Marines to fill time-sensitive components of the war-time structure. Some Marines who participate in the IMA program come onto mobilization orders for several weeks at a time during specific times of the year, normally in order to support major reserve exercises.

Lt. Col. John Hanlon, who serves as an operations officer with the III Marine Expeditionary Force Rear Area Operations Group, is a full-time high school information technology teacher in Norco, Calif. Hanson travels to Okinawa twice a year to fulfill his military duties.

Hanlon says he prefers the IMA to the SMCR because it allows him the flexibility to perform his Marine Corps duties when school is not in session.

For more information on the IMA program, go to: http://mobcom.mfr.usmc.mil/IMA

Peacetime-Wartime Support Teams

Hundreds of Peacetime-Wartime Support Teams (PWSTs) throughout the United States offer a unique reserve drill opportunity, and in some cases, mobilization opportunity for reserve officers to provide direct support to SMCR units, particularly those units mobilizing and deploying in support of overseas contingency operations.

According to the Marine Forces Reserve’s Web site, in 1997, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Charles Krulak, directed development of a program to get Marines out into the community to tell the Marine Corps story and win new friends for our Corps. The Marine Corps created PWSTs at reserve sites across the country to do just that and more.

The PWSTs are an IMA detachment, responsible for such diverse tasks as community outreach, reserve site support, crisis assistance to civil authorities, family assistance, IRR musters and mobilization of Marines.

“I love having the opportunity to serve so many people,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mary Santiago Foos, the PWST for Company L, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment in Columbus, Ohio.

“We support the Marines who will deploy and we support those who inspect and train them. We meet the Marines' families, helping pull them together so that they know that the Marine Corps cares and that the Marine Corps truly is a family,” explained Santiago Foos, whose unit is scheduled to mobilize in May and deploy overseas in the fall.

“We have the opportunity to tell the Marine Corps story, attend and participate in public events, and meet so many people of all walks of life who are so supportive and appreciative of what we do,” continued Santiago Foos, a career reservist. “I enjoy being able to communicate with the Marines who have now entered the IRR; learning about what career path they are pursuing, or sharing with them not just the military opportunities, but helpful information about the community in terms of contacts, resources and benefits. This job is rewarding.”

The size of each PWST varies depending upon the unit supported, according to MOBCOM. An average PWST consists of an officer and one to two staff non-commissioned officers

There are currently about 450 PWST billets at reserve units throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico. For more information about PWST roles and opportunities, visit the MOBCOM website.

The ESGR: Reserve Marine Advocates

For those officers who get off active duty to pursue civilian job opportunities, they need not worry about their reserve service interfering with their career track.

All United States civilian employers, as well as federal and state government agencies, are bound by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act to guarantee that all reservists can return to their civilian jobs after their mobilization without negative repercussions. 

The Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve is a federal agency which provides informal mediation and legal support to reservists if any issues arise because of military service.  The ESGR is, in essence, the "teeth" of USERRA laws.

The ESGR's vision statement is as follows: Develop and promote a culture in which all American employers support and value the military service of their employees."

For more information about the ESGR or USERRA laws, visit the ESGR's website at www.esgr.org.

Reserve pay and retirement

With 48 drill periods each year and a 15-day (or longer) annual training period, many Reserve Marine officers manage to significantly augment their income while serving their country and community.

With the nation currently engaged in a myriad of overseas contingency operations, there are also opportunities to return to active service either through temporary mobilization orders with all the pay, entitlements and tax incentives of active service.

Aside from being compensated for participation, reserve officers can help build their retirement portfolio by earning retirement points which contribute to the endowment of their military pension. As mentioned, retirement points can also be earned by attending distance or resident PME and other types of professional development.

For the much of the American workforce who is responsible for self-directed retirement planning, being able to count on a military pension to help supplement their post-employment income can be a welcome addition.

Retired reservists normally begin receiving their reserve retirement paycheck at the age of 60.

However, the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act approved an initiative to enable reservists who are called to active duty (not including their 14-day annual training period) to begin receiving their pay earlier.

For every 90 days of consecutive mobilization within a fiscal year after January 28, 2008, the age in which a reservist begins receiving their retirement pay backs up three months.

For example, if a reservist mobilized on July 1, 2008, completed pre-deployment training, went to Afghanistan, returned for post-deployment transition classes and demobilized on July 1, 2009, he or she would begin receiving their retirement pay at the age of 59 vice 60.

U.S. lawmakers are currently considering legislation to make this “90-for-90” rule retroactive to Sept. 11, 2001.

The actual dollar amount which a reservist receives monthly for retirement pay is based on points earned for all military service, including active duty, mobilized time, drills, annual training and attendance at resident or seminar PME.

For example, Lt. Col. John Smith retires after 22 years in the Marine Corps.

Smith initially served eight years on active duty, then got out and served in the SMCR for 14 years. He was mobilized for two years in support of overseas contingency operations after January 2008 and attended Marine Corps War College resident course in Quantico for a year.  He also completed the Marine Corps Command and Staff College distance education seminar program. Smith attended an extended summer annual training on the 4th Marine Division staff at Talisman Saber in Australia and a 5-week theater security cooperation exercise with his unit in Morocco.

In accordance with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s reserve retirement calculator, Lt. Col Smith’s military service rates the following estimated monthly paycheck:
Estimated monthly pay in today's dollars: $2,753.35/month.
Anticipated monthly pay at age 60 in 2026: $4,418.32/month.

Because of his two years of mobilization and deployment post-Jan. 2008, Lt. Col. Smith would be eligible to begin receiving a reserve paycheck at the age of 58. He would continue to receive monthly retirement pay for the rest of his life, with annual raises based on the Department of Defense’s military pay chart.

Special travel pay

Because reserve officers may not live near the unit where they attend weekend drills, the Marine Corps now provides a stipend of up to $300 a month to help offset the cost of commuting for qualifying officers in key billets.  For more information, see Marine Corps Administrative Messages 222/09.

In conclusion

For those who want to continue serving their country in the uniform of a Marine Corps officer while pursuing a civilian career or graduate degree, the Marine Corps Reserve can provide leadership opportunities to tailor-fit the needs of those leaving active duty.

Regardless of whether you’re an infantryman, combat engineer, administrator, logistician or pilot, your options are wide open in the Marine Corps Reserve.

“There are financial aspects of it, but for the most part you get to keep doing what you love to do and go out into the community,” explained Kelly. “The contacts are excellent also. That would be my pitch, certainly if my son was getting out, or leaving the active duty side. You can stay Marine in the fullest sense of the word…. So to continue serving your community and your nation, this (the Marine Corps Reserve) is an opportunity to be more than just an every day citizen."