Calling On The Reserves

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not constitute endorsement by Marine Forces Reserve, nor does Marine Forces Reserve make representations as to the accuracy, timeliness, or completeness of information herein.

This is an article of three parts. The first illustrates my experience as a reservist activated to become a section leader for the newly commissioned Marine Corps Training and Advisor Group (MCTAG). It is aimed at recruiting future reservists and motivating current reservists by presenting one example of the many opportunities available as a member of the Reserves. The second part is a brief recollection of the capabilities and contribution of the reserves over the past eight years. It ties in MCTAG as one of many examples of how Marine reservists can be and have been essential to the success of Marine Corps sustainment, initiatives, and contingencies. Part three considers and recalls the global threats to our Nation and its prosperity; it calls for the continued robust utilization of the Marine Corps Reserve and suggests reasons and means for future Reserve activations.

PART 1

In May of 2008, a group of 20 reservists was assembled at the 24th Marine Regiment in Kansas City, Mo., to become the first team trained and developed as Marine Corps advisors as described on page 24 of The Long War.1 At the time, I was one of two captains assigned to the team – a section leader, working for the team leader, Lt. Col. John Robinson. We had a multidisciplined team representing many of the warfighting functions: infantry, reconnaissance, communications, and logistics. We were assembled from a number of diverse units within the Reserves from Saginaw, Mich., to San Antonio, Texas. We would report to Col. Scott Cottrell, the Director of the Marine Corps Training and Advisor Group (MCTAG), Fort Story, Virginia, and work with the group of approximately 40 active duty Marines that stood up the organization and formed its nucleus. Our short-term objective was to become trainers, advisors, and regional experts, prepared to deploy in support of Southern Command’s (USSOUTHCOM) Security Cooperation (SC),

Security Force Assistance (SFA), and Foreign Internal Defense (FID) efforts. Prior to deploying, we received and conducted a comprehensive training package lasting over four months. Some of the highlights of the training package were: safety swimming, MCMAP-MAIT, enhanced marksmanship, foreign weapons, advanced medical, language and culture, advanced driving, and Range/Training Area Management and Safety. Much of the specialized training was conducted by civilian experts and organizations in each field. We received training from the MCTAG staff, most of who had been assigned to Military Transition Teams (MiTTs) in Iraq. We also conducted our own training due to the combined expertise and experience of the team, a positive and direct result of the operational reserve, which I will discuss later.

Following the training package, Team 1 started deploying to Central and South America in November of 2008. We assigned Marines from our team to Southern Partnership Station aboard the High Speed Vessel (HSV)-2-Swift. This mission was coordinated through U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command / U.S. Fourth Fleet to meet the specific training requests of Partner Nations. The Swift embarked elements of the Navy Expeditionary Training Command from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia, Marine Corps Training and Advisor Group from Fort Story and Naval Criminal Investigative Service Security Training Assistance and Assessment Team. The ship visited El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Barbados, and Colombia.2

The rest of the team worked and deployed out of Ft. Story / Norfolk, Va. Over a six-month period, the two sections conducted and completed missions in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Honduras, and Uruguay. During that time, we predominantly trained and advised small unit tactics and leadership. We trained groups of Partner Nation Marines / Soldiers numbering from 20 to 75 on a multitude of different skills and topics ranging from marksmanship and patrolling, to non-lethal weapons and first aid.

One of our sections also conducted a mission in Cameroon. Despite the fact that Africa was not the Area of Operations we oriented our training on, the team was qualified and prepared to conduct the training and it allowed MCTAG to begin supporting and influencing SC and SFA efforts for a second Marine Force: Marine Forces Africa. The training audience in Cameroon was a battalion and the training package was conducted with civilian contractors working for Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA).

Ultimately, Team 1 was successful. We established a foundation of trust and confidence with the MARFORs by conducting thousands of hours of safe and effective training as well as creating lasting relationships with our host-nation counterparts. Following the first group of Reserve Marines, MCTAG has trained another 50 or so reservists who went on to embark on the USS Nashville, train and advise in Africa, and continue the missions in Central / South America. Approximately one third of the reservists who have served at MCTAG requested to stay on for another year of activation. This is primarily due to the individual training opportunities; the travel; the interesting, independent and challenging nature of the work; and the opportunity to serve on Active Duty with fellow Marines: to stay connected and stay sharp.

Following my last deployment to South America I volunteered to continue working for MCTAG and was subsequently assigned to the Georgia Deployment Program – This strategically significant, high visibility program is aimed at establishing, leading, and eventually turning over (to the Georgian military) a Predeployment Training Program (PTP) for the Georgian Army to serve side-by-side with the Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Afghanistan (MEB-A). The Georgian’s have committed four battalions over two years to serve with the International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan, but specifically requested to be trained by and integrated with the United States Marine Corps. Sergeant Georman Elder and I were two Reserve Marines assigned to the Georgia Training Team, which was predominantly composed of Active Duty Marines from the MCTAG staff. I was the operations officer and the deputy team chief, he was the lead instructor. The GTT deployed to Georgia - with support from the US Embassy, the Office of Defense Cooperation and the Georgian military, we initiated and established a six month PTP that will prepare Georgian units and Soldiers to serve, side-by-side with Marines in Afghanistan. We enjoyed the opportunity to work with myriad units and agencies, some of whom were: Training and Education Command (TECOM), from the operations shop to Field Medical School; 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines (3/8); Ninth Marines; Second Marines; Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning (CAOCL); Marine Corps Training and Operations Group (MCTOG), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), all of whom provided training and supported the deployment preparation of the Georgians. The 31st Georgian Army Battalion is now in its fifth month of the PTP. They have completed their Mission Rehearsal Exercise and are now in their final preparations for deployment to Afghanistan.

The above review of my last 18 months on Active Duty illustrates only one of the many opportunities available to reservists and often times, or at certain times, open only to reservists. For example, the first three years of MCTAG advisor team selection will be composed exclusively of reserve Marines. I have enjoyed extraordinary experiences training, learning, travelling, and perhaps most importantly, being with, being led by, and leading Marines. Ultimately, the opportunities working with MCTAG had a tremendously positive effect on all of us. I am confident that the experience improved individual Marine retention within the Reserves and ultimately translated into a better-trained more motivated reservist who will have a decidedly higher impact at his home unit and / or during future activations or deployments.

PART 2

Over the past eight years, the Marine Corps has grown accustomed to having an operational Reserve. Reservists have been crucial in augmenting the operating forces as well as sustaining and supporting the infrastructure and global presence of the Marine Corps. Reservists have maximized the number of Marines influencing OIF, OEF, and other global contingency operations, and have enabled the Marine Corps to sustain, continue, and improve exercises, operations and initiatives world-wide. A few examples of this are: entire battalions activated and assigned to OIF and OEF; Individual Augments assigned to critical shortfalls throughout the Marine Corps; humanitarian relief efforts such as response to Hurricane Katrina; Civil Military Operations leveraging the police experience resident in the Reserves; and Special Purpose (SP) MAGTFs organized to support international training events such as Partnership of the Americas and Landing Force Cooperation and Readiness Afloat Training.

MCTAG is yet another example of how the Reserves can be and have been utilized to accomplish a goal. Given the operational tempo and utilization of Active Marines, MCTAG looked initially to the Reserves in order test and validate some of the initial concepts of SC, SFA and FID outlined in The Long War.3 The future of MCTAG, therefore, became a shared responsibility between the Active Duty staff and the Reserve trainers / advisors. The Active Duty staff worked tirelessly to establish an understanding and trust with the Marine Forces (MARFORs) and gain a foothold with their security cooperation efforts. However, the immediate professional reputation of MCTAG and its ability to support the MARFOR missions rested solely on the performance of the reservists. In order to be successful the reservists conducted safe, challenging, and effective training that was tailored to each unit’s ability. Equally important, however, were the relationships. Therefore, we strove incessantly to create winning relationships and meet the needs of the “customers”: Host Nation military leaders and Soldiers / Marines, US Embassy Military Groups and Offices of Defense Cooperation, the Combatant Commanders, and the Marine Forces. Consequently, the Reserve Marines of MCTAG created solid relationships and respect with the host nations, the country teams and offices of defense cooperation, which ultimately paved the way for larger, more significant, and more frequent engagements with more Partner Nations.

The plans and provisions outlined and called for in The Long War are quickly becoming reality. Phase Zero operations are growing in size, scope, and frequency. The Marine Reserves have been central to that effort, supporting, furthering, and expediting Marine Corps initiatives. The Active Duty Tables of Organization and Equipment for MCTAG have been approved – it is now a Marine Corps command and will soon be assembling Active Duty trainer / advisor teams alongside the teams made up of reservists. MCTAG continues to advise and train Partner Nations on three continents and will soon add two more continents and seven more nations to the list. As I write this article, the Africa Partnership Station (APS) and a Security Cooperation Marine Air Ground Task Force (SC MAGTF) aboard the USS Gunston Hall is en route to Haiti to marry up with the 22nd MEU in order to provide disaster support / relief: a real-world application and use of the SP MAGTF in a Security Cooperation mission. Marine Forces Reserve should proudly recognize the contributions and performance of its units and Marines and the experience from OIF / OEF leveraged to establish a pivotal role in realigning the efforts and operations of the Marine Corps, as SP MAGTFs.

PART 3

The Marine Corps is, by consensus, facing a near-future of fewer global commitments and assignments for a variety of political and economic reasons. Without a doubt, this will translate to fewer activations for Marine Reserve units and Reserve Augments. I believe, however, that the global threat remains and will continue to remain largely the same. The threats to our security and our interests are as complicated, sophisticated, and dangerous right now as they ever have been. In some cases, the threats are extremely disjointed and distributed with sobering combinations of high and low technologies aimed at tearing down our international influence and our own internal trust and resolve as a Nation. In other cases it is nation-states that are bent on (and are very close to) the production and acquisition of nuclear capabilities for power-production and the weapons-grade byproducts of the power generation processes. There are also global powers that we recognize as “partners” in one arena or another, but also incite or engage in malicious activities like economic and cyber warfare, human rights violations, conquest, invasions, occupations, intolerance, assassinations, and corrupt elections. These are often nation-states that have large militaries capable of assembling at least moderate levels of combat power. These are plausible and credible military threats that could conceivably erupt independently and simultaneously.

The United States and the Military must continue to prepare to fight any, all, or most of these adversaries at some point in the future. In fact, the threat calls for high levels of readiness throughout the Marine Corps at any given time in order to concurrently fight or respond to multiple threats; the type of readiness that is maintained in the Reserve forces by operational tempo. Likewise, we cannot afford to lose the experience, the knowledge, and the capabilities that we have built and developed over the past eight years utilizing the operational Reserve. As we draw down the number of Marines committed to Global Contingency Operations it is critical that we sustain, indeed, improve our Reserves in order to maintain the Corps’ overall readiness and capability.

The concept and employment of an operational Reserve in the Marine Corps has been in effect for close to a decade now. During the past eight years of service, reservists have developed and acquired tremendous training, knowledge, and experience in support of OIF, OEF, and other global contingencies. It is imperative that we maintain that edge within the Reserves in preparation for any and all future global contingencies, whether they are humanitarian efforts close to home or in far off lands calling for full kinetic warfare. I assert that using Marine reservists to create “SC” or SP MAGTFs will be absolutely essential to maintaining the level of proficiency, knowledge, and experience needed to adequately prepare for a response to future threats and contingencies.

I would also like to propose the possibility of continuing or extending the concept of an operational Reserve: incorporating reservists into Active Duty priorities, efforts, and deployments across the Marine Corps. Consider the Marine Corps allocating a portion of billets in planned deployments / contingencies for the Reserves. For example, if the 15th MEU is slated to begin workups on 1 January for a July deployment. A specific allocation would be sent to Marine Forces Reserve - a slate of every possible MOS and given a deadline way ahead of the normal Active Duty assignment process. This would achieve several important objectives. First, it would bring Marine Reservists current with all of their training. It would familiarize them in the most current equipment; standard operating procedures; and tactics, techniques, and procedures. By and large, it would produce a more knowledgeable, more proficient, and more motivated cornerstone for Reserve units. Perhaps only one or two deployments per year are supportable, but I cannot overstate the value in offering a one-year activation for volunteers in the reserves to activate, train, deploy and then return to a reserve status. I anticipate that such activations would have a significantly positive effect on Reserve recruiting and retention. Finally, these Reserve deployments would also support Active Duty personnel tempo initiatives.

Ultimately, the Reserves have demonstrated the ability to activate, train-up, and positively influence and contribute to the most decisive Marine Corps missions and objectives. In light of the global threat and global contingencies, we must continue to recruit, motivate and retain qualified reservists. Opportunities like SP MAGTFs and MCTAG are a windfall toward achieving those aims. We must continue to call on the Reserves to accomplish critical objectives for the Marine Corps. This effort will develop and take care of the Reserves and our reservists. It will make the Marine Corps more flexible, adaptable, and effective. Most importantly it will keep the Corps in the highest state of readiness prepared for any and all conceivable threats and missions.

Maj. Trujillo is currently serving at 24th Marine Regiment, Kansas City, Mo.

Notes:

The Long War (1) U.S. Marine Corps, The Long War, Send in the Marines, A Marine Corps Operational Employment Concept to Meet An Uncertain Security Environment, Washington, DC: U.S. Marine Corps, January 2008, p. 24.

(2) http://www.southcom.mil/AppsSC/factFiles.php?id=89

(3) U.S. Marine Corps, The Long War, pp. 10 - 26