MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Marine Corps Recruiting Command surpassed its recruiting goals for fiscal year 2010 by enlisting 33,887 Marines and accessing 1,703 officers. This is the 15th year in a row that the Marine Corps has reached its total force accessions goals.
Maj. Gen. Robert E. Milstead Jr., commanding general, Marine Corps Recruiting Command, released the following statement.
Hard work has paid off, again. Our recruiters and commanders met MCRC's Fiscal Year 2010 mission with success, and I'm proud of their collective accomplishments. After achieving 202,000 during Fiscal Year 2009, this past year was one of transition, from growth to stabilization. We recruited 33,868 enlisted and 1,703 officers. The quality of the enlisted accessions was again impressive – 99.7 percent tier I (high school graduates) and 72.9 percent mental category I-IIIA (scored in the upper half of military entrance exams). What is most noteworthy, however, is that every one of these young men and women volunteered to join our Corps during a time of war. Each knows that joining the Corps today means they’ll have a better than fair chance of moving to the sound of cannons. However, it’s now time to focus on the road ahead. The next several years will see an increase in our total force mission. Fiscal year 2011’s mission is 37,330, an increase of 3,462 over last year, and Fiscal Year 2012’s total force enlisted mission is currently projected at approximately 41,200 – the largest projected mission levied on MCRC since 2008. Marine Corps Recruiting Command is an active duty family like no other, dispersed amongst the population in communities nationwide. We have 6,000 personnel in 1,575 ‘fighting holes’ spread across all the 50 states and our territories. Over 70 percent of our recruiting forces have deployed. Although now ‘home,’ there’s still a significant amount of time spent away from family. We must rely on one another to meet present and anticipated challenges, maintaining a healthy balance between personal, spiritual and professional maintenance and development.
Although coming off of major success, the recruiting command will continue to look toward the future and focus on their primary task, finding quality citizens willing to accept the challenge to try and become U.S. Marines.