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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe experience I have gained on my combat deployments as a junior Marine has given me all the tools needed to \u00adsucceed as I grew older in the Corps,\u201d said Robert, the 2017 Marine Corps Times Marine of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the loss of combat vets in the ranks is an inevitable byproduct of wars winding down, the Marine Corps still needs to be prepared to respond to ongoing threats, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis simply means we as leaders must continue to train the newer generation even harder than what we did when the war was active. As we all know, someday we will be on a battlefield in some country in this world and all must be trained to succeed regardless of the rank or jobs we\u2019re in,\u201d Robert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018They want to deploy\u2019 <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, the frequency and intensity of the Corps\u2019 combat deployments was \u00adprecisely what drew in Marines and kept them professionally fulfilled. Now that there are fewer traditional ground combat deployments, some Marines are leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome came during the fight just to fight,\u201d Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green told Marine Corps Times in a recent interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNow that the fight is over, they say: \u2018Hey, you know what? It was good while we were doing what I came to do. We\u2019re no longer doing that. Don\u2019t know when we\u2019re going to do it again, so I am going to do something different.\u2019 That\u2019s \u00adexpected of some.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Green also said the Marine Corps is not idly sitting in garrison. Marines continue to deploy as part of Marine Expeditionary Units, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Forces and rotational training forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have 38,000-plus Marines that are deployed right now,\u201d Green said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t want anybody to ever think that we\u2019re not deploying Marines. We can\u2019t get enough of them out there. They want to deploy. That\u2019s what Marines want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Black cautioned about gauging the \u00adlevel of combat experience by the number of Marines with Combat Action Ribbons, which he said is \u201ccompletely the wrong metric to use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ribbon is awarded to individual Marines who have engaged the enemy or faced hostile fire from enemy forces. Not all Marines who go to combat receive the Combat Action Ribbon, said Black, whose wife, a retired first sergeant, has been to combat but does not have the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat would probably be a better metric to use is the number of Marines who have had deployments,\u201d Black said. \u201cBecause a deployment on a Special MAGTF right now is gaining experience \u2014 so is a MEU. Artillerymen that we see on the news that are heavily engaged are gaining experience firing cannons in support of combat operations. Are they in combat? I don\u2019t answer that question, but they\u2019re gaining experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Marine Corps data, about 46,000 of today\u2019s active-duty and reserve Marines have deployed for at least 180 days on missions that include combat operations, humanitarian and disaster relief missions, training exercises and Marine expeditionary unit deployments. That\u2019s about one in five Marines in the force today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of those Marines, 18,580 \u2014 or fewer than one in 10 Marines \u2014 have deployed twice. The number of Marines in today\u2019s force who have deployed three times is about 6,500, and only 2,181 Marines have four or more deployments, according to Manpower and Reserve Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black said it is difficult to offer \u00adincentives targeting Marines with combat experience and, he added, combat experience is not necessarily the best experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre we incentivizing people with combat experience? No. We\u2019re incentivizing Marines who are high performers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a competitive environment to be retained in the Marine Corps. \u00adBecause of the competitiveness, all \u00adfactors are taken into consideration. Do you have combat experience? That\u2019s a factor. Are you physically fit? That\u2019s a factor. Are you meeting basic annual training requirements? That\u2019s a factor. Are your proficiency and conduct marks, and your fitness reports competitive with your peers? Those are all factors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Passing it on <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Facing the inevitable loss of combat veterans, the Marine Corps needs to make sure that those Marines who have been to war impart the lessons they\u2019ve learned to younger Marines, said \u00adKatherine Kidder, a military personnel expert with the Center for a New \u00adAmerican Security think tank in \u00adWashington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo a certain extent, the services \u2014 particularly the ground forces \u2014 have been using deployments as training experience in the last 15 years,\u201d Kidder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means the Marine Corps needs to find other ways to educate troops on the skillsets and thought processes required for combat, she said. Professionally military education helped retain \u00adinstitutional knowledge gained from World War I when untested U.S. troops went to war again more than 20 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe question is maybe not \u2018How many people are we losing,\u2019 but, \u2018Are we still maintaining enough to create the framework where you could rapidly expand with junior forces and be able to structure it in such a way that they would be competent on the battlefield,\u201d Kidder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s exactly what the Marine Corps has been doing for the past 16 years, Green said. He said the Marine Corps has expanded professional military education so that more Marines can take the Lance Corporal Seminar, the Corporals Courses at the unit level, the Sergeants Course and courses for staff sergeants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe made all of that available since the war started,\u201d Green said. \u201cThat was one, to educate us; and secondly so that we could pass that experience from combat a lot faster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retention<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Retaining the best combat veterans is part of a larger retention challenge that the Corps is now facing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One factor across the military is an improving economy that offers more opportunities for experienced service members in the civilian world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Marines, the top Marine general said the Corps\u2019 retention challenges are driven in part by the intense operational tempo of training and other types of \u00addeployments, even though today\u2019s Marines have fewer opportunities for traditional combat deployments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current dwell time ratio of two months at home for every month \u00adMarines spend deployed, or 2-to-1 ratio. Neller has said the Marine Corps needs to return to a dwell ratio of 1-to-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\t![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/WhosDeployed_web-01.png.png\")
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