LANSDOWNE, Va. -- The Marine Corps’ senior career recruiting leadership held the first ever National Career Recruiter Leadership Conference here recently to review the structure, policy and issues impacting the career recruiter force.
More than 90 attendees consisting of all the master gunnery sergeants in the 8412 Military Occupation Specialty (MOS), district contact team chiefs, recruiter instructors, all three commanding generals for recruiting and their respective sergeants major, gathered for the two-day event.
“This conference is significant historically because never in the history of the 8412s have we had every 8412 master gunnery sergeant in one room with the commanding generals for recruiting, to discuss critical issues, policy and shaping, and also to listen to the commanding general’s vision for our operations,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Christian MacMillan, National Training Team Chief.
Some of the topics covered included improving incentives to recruiters, refocusing on training and mentoring of junior recruiters, growing the 8412 community by convincing more Marines to become career recruiters and focusing on lessons learned over the last few years of recruiting in a challenging and competitive environment.
“I can think of no other MOS that has more strategic value to the Marine Corps or can be described as a national asset,” said Major Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commanding general, Marine Corps Recruiting Command. “Career recruiters provide the expertise, stability, continuity, and leadership to ensure the lifeblood of our Corps is sustained with the best young men and women our nation has to offer.”
At the opening of the conference, Gaskin encouraged the Marines to take advantage of this unique opportunity to communicate directly with their leadership. The Marines were to present their findings directly to Gaskin and the two recruiting region commanding generals, Brigadier Gen. Richard T. Tryon, commanding general, Eastern Recruiting Region; and Brigadier Gen. John M. Paxton Jr., commanding general, Western Recruiting Region.
The method of review consisted of breaking the Marines into smaller working groups to focus on issues such as whether to offer more incentive pay to career recruiters, or to map the path through which a Marine becomes a career recruiter and then how they progress and grow in the MOS. The Marines came up with different solutions and feedback to present to the larger group as a whole.
“One of the things to come out of the conference is a commitment by the command to form a national working group of senior 8412s to advise the command leadership in a more regular basis in the same fashion as we have done here today,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Patrick Arbec, the operations chief for Marine Corps Recruiting Command.
To get the Marines in the right frame of mind, and remind them of how important their mission is to the overall health of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Gen. James Mattis, commanding general, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, was invited as the keynote speaker. Mattis, well known for his leadership during 1st Marine Division’s successful drive to Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom, motivated the hard working Marines during his opening address and delivered a fair amount of praise and respect.
“I am here to tell you the center is holding, the center of the Marine Corps. Our retention is higher and that speaks highly of what you [the recruiters] are doing in terms of the quality and spirit of the young Americans you are finding,” said Mattis, who also commanded Recruiting Station Portland, Ore. “The nature of recruiting breeds a certain type of character. You are the type of aggressive self-starters that if I ever got into a jam on a battlefield, I’d go find myself a half-dozen recruiters to get the job done.”
A normal tour of duty as a recruiter in the Marine Corps is 36 months and is considered special duty. Career recruiters are successful recruiters who have chosen to change their primary MOS to 8412 and remain working in the recruiting environment for the duration of their Marine Corps career. They fill many billets in recruiting from staff noncommissioned officers in-charge of recruiting substations to recruiter instructors, training, evaluating and passing on their experience to more junior recruiters.
“Our career recruiters are invaluable in terms of continuity of knowledge and experience, working in such a transient organization where Marines are coming and going off of the duty. The career recruiters offer stability to a Recruiting Station and that is what separates us from the other services. I think it is the lynchpin to what makes us successful,” said MacMillan.
There are currently 506 Marine career recruiters. Marines interested in becoming a career recruiter must first complete a successful tour on recruiting duty. They must then submit for consideration to become a career recruiter, go through an observation period and successfully complete the Career Recruiters Course. As career recruiters, these Marines receive the same $450 per month for special duty allowance that regular recruiters receive. They also enjoy the benefits of location stability and non-deployable status.
Gaskin closed out the conference by thanking the career recruiters and assuring them that the ideas, suggestions and concerns they brought forth would be heard and answered.
“We’ve had some great discussion. It is refreshing to be in such a group of professionals - this is long overdue,” said Gaskin. “I appreciate your unvarnished candor. With 1623 years of experience in this room, each of us can learn from each other.”