Marine Corps to start involuntary troop recalls

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Marine Corps will start recalling thousands of inactive service members in the coming months to counter a steady decline in the number of non-active troops volunteering for duty, the service said on Tuesday.

Col. Guy Stratton, head of the Marine Corps’ manpower mobilization plans, said the service is short some 1,200 volunteers over the next 18 months to fill roles in the war on terrorism. The total shortfall fluctuates regularly, he said.

To meet critical needs, Stratton said President George W.Bush authorized the Marine Corps to issue involuntary recall orders to members of the Individual Ready Reserve, part of the non-active force. It will be the Marine Corps’ first involuntary recall since the ground invasion of Iraq in 2003.

No more than 2,500 Marines may be involuntarily activated at once under the new authorization, Stratton said. About 35,000 Marines are available to be recalled involuntarily.

While the length of each activated servicemember’s duty is capped, there is no time limit on the Marine Corps’ authority to involuntarily recall Marines for jobs in the “Global War on Terror” — a war whose parameters remain largely undefined.

“The authority is until GWOT is over with,” Stratton said. “Until we’re told to do otherwise, we’ll use it.”

The Marine Corps’ move comes almost five years after the September 11 attacks that led the United States to declare “a war against terrorism of global reach” and more than three years after the Iraq war began.

Many Marines have performed three tours of duty in Iraq since March 2003. While the U.S. Army has provided most of the ground forces fighting an insurgency there, the Marines have carried a heavy load and been deployed in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq, Anbar province.

Beyond Iraq, the broader war against terrorism is expected to last many years, defense officials regularly say.

The Marines and Army have been meeting monthly recruiting goals. But some analysts have questioned the military’s ability to sustain long-term operations with its all-volunteer force.

The Army has previously taken steps to keep soldiers from leaving, such as temporary “stop loss” orders that prohibited troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan from retiring for a set period after arriving at their home bases.

Such moves have been criticized by some as a form of back-door draft.

Stratton, however, said the Marines’ involuntary recall was not a back-door draft and that Marines on non-active status should always expect that they may be called when needed.

Under a general contract, a Marine serves four years on active duty and four in reserve. While on reserve, Marines may volunteer to return to active duty to fill needed roles.

But the number of Marines volunteering outside their active-duty service requirement has been steadily declining for two years, according to Stratton, who said he could not say why Marines were not volunteering.