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United States Marine Corps | Marine Recruiting | Marines

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FAQ Answer

Marine Officer Candidates earn their commissions after graduating from college and completing a program such as Platoon Leaders Class or Officer Candidate Course. They then attend The Basic School, followed by specialized training that prepares them for their Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). Officers serve in the operating forces, leading Marines in their primary MOS. After their first tour, they serve in non-MOS-related positions such as recruiting duty. Officers also attend career-level schools like Expeditionary Warfare School and may seek advanced degrees.

Promotions are based on time in rank, successful performance in assignments, and appropriate education. During active service, officers and their families have access to a wide range of personal and professional resources such as healthcare, travel, advanced education, and financial benefits. Above all, they are part of the Marine Corps family, and this camaraderie, as well as their leadership training and experience leading Marines, lasts a lifetime.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Marines

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View the Marines Frequently Asked Questions to find out more about benefits, education, recruiters, and more.

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One evening in 2016, John walked out of his career planner's office carrying a blue-and-red folder that contained his completed reenlistment package. The junior enlisted Marine had a decision to make: Should he submit the package and stay in the Marine Corps, or leave the service the following year?

When John entered his workplace, his enlisted leaders greeted him by screaming at him for a "menial" mistake, something like forgetting to take out the trash or sweep properly.

"I was like, 'Do I really want to subject myself to this for another four years? '" John recalled in a January interview with Marine Corps Times.

Once his leaders had left for the night, he chucked the folder in the trash.

John, now a Navy officer, spoke freely about his time in the military under the condition that Marine Corps Times not use his real name.

Before the past few years, three quarters of enlisted Marines departed after one four-year term, as John did. Back then, the Marine Corps' personnel model was to recruit young civilians, turn them into Marines, give them specialized training and churn most of them back out after four years.

But since 2021, the Corps has changed its approach.

It has thrown new bonuses and job options at enlisted Marines. It has tweaked its promotion policies to encourage reenlistments. It has promised long-term improvements to quality of life, albeit not many short-term fixes to the dire condition of the barracks.

The result? More and more Marines are opting to stay for second enlistments.

But the Marine Corps has room to grow in retention, according to Col. Eric Reid, the Corps' head of manpower plans, programs and budget. It is not the case that the service has too many reenlistments on its hands.

"We're a long way away from having that problem, although I would welcome that problem," Reid told Marine Corps Times in January.

Even as more Marines sign on for second terms, lured in part by the Corps' new focus on retention, many other Marines still - for a variety of reasons - decide to throw their reenlistment packages in the trash.

Some of the initiatives the Corps is pushing as a way to keep boosting retention will be expensive. Some will take a long time. Some may work, and some may not.

And the retention efforts hardly address what many Marine veterans say was a main reason they left: the indifferent, belittling or malicious treatment they received from some of their leaders.

The case for keeping Marines in

The Marine Corps already has seen a marked increase in the number of Marines who choose to stay.

In fiscal year 2020, the Marine Corps got 5,428 first-term enlisted Marines to reenlist, missing its goal by more than 300, according to data provided by Marine spokeswoman Capt. Sarah Eason.

But enlisted retention crept up in the ensuing years, and in fiscal year 2023 the Marine Corps aimed to have 6,225 first-term Marines reenlist. It overshot that goal, executing 7,079 first-term reenlistments.

The number of Marines choosing to reenlist after a second term in the service has modestly increased, according to the data.

Officer retention, however, has dropped, with 11% of officers leaving active duty in fiscal year 2023, compared to 8% in fiscal year 2019. Eason attributed that to the scrapping of some officer jobs, the military's now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccine mandate and some officers delaying their separations until the economic uncertainties of the pandemic subsided. She said numbers are returning to pre-pandemic norms.

The Marine Corps' retention efforts aren't about making everyone happy, Reid said.

"It's about being ready to answer the nation's call and to fight and prevail on battlefields we see going into the 2030s and 2040," Reid said.

In preparing for conflict with a technologically sophisticated adversary, namely the Chinese military, the service has revamped the way it fights.

The Marines who would fire at enemy ships from temporary bases or spy on the enemy with drones or plan deliveries of food and fuel that can escape the enemy's notice require plenty of training, Marine leaders have said.

When those Marines leave after four years, the Corps loses their expertise, and it has to spend time and money training their replacements, Reid said. By holding on to those Marines, the idea goes, the service can reduce those costs.

The Marine Corps unveiled the new focus on retention in November 2021, in a document called Talent Management 2030, which emphasized the need to keep experienced Marines who could undertake the complexities of modern war.

The document also made the case for a slightly older force, alluding to research that shows people are more physically and mentally fit in their mid-20s than in their late teens and early 20s.

Some observers say a focus on retention has its downsides.

Retired Col. Warren Parker warned in an October 2022 opinion piece in Marine Corps Times that an older force could be less eager to deploy and more expensive to sustain.

"A distinguishing characteristic of the Corps is, unlike the other services, we are a young, first term force eager for adventure and challenge," Parker wrote.

The Marine Corps hasn't engaged in a war with another great power in recent years, so it is hard to say for certain whether having a more experienced force will pay off on the battlefield, as the service predicts.

But the emphasis on retention has already helped the Marine Corps weather the recruiting difficulties that have battered the other services.

In fiscal year 2022, the Corps just barely met its recruiting goal - and only because it saw higher-than-expected retention that allowed it to lower its initial goal. It made its recruiting goal the following year, too, even as every other branch besides the Space Force came up short.

Yet Parker speculated in his op-ed that the emphasis on retention could indirectly hamper future recruitment efforts, since returning high numbers of young Marines to the civilian world as veterans "helps to maintain an important link to the American people."

Managing talent

To boost retention, the Marine Corps is setting out to build a "retention climate," Col. Bob McCarthy, branch head of Manpower Management Enlisted Assignments, told Marine Corps Times in January.

The Corps has tasked commanding generals with a mission to keep a certain number of their Marines, prompting them to prioritize retention, McCarthy said. Career planners have been speaking with Marines earlier in their terms about their reenlistment options.

Another key initiative is the Commandant's Retention Program, which targets a few thousand of the top-performing first-term Marines annually, McCarthy said. Those Marines get a streamlined path to reenlistment and greater choice about their next duty station.

Cpl. Walker Kerns, an F/A-18 ejection seat mechanic with the South Carolina-based Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312, reenlisted in October 2023 through that program. He had planned to reenlist anyway, but he appreciated that he didn't have to jump through any hoops to do so, he told Marine Corps Times in January.

"What that did is it allowed me to focus not only on my job, instead of primarily being focused on reenlisting, but it kind of secured my spot, so to speak," Kerns said.

The Marine Corps also is offering earlier reenlistments and promotions, loosening the policy of kicking out Marines who twice fail to get promoted, and allowing more local assignment changes to decrease the number of disruptive moves. And it is making it easier for Marines to switch jobs, in a process called lateral moves.

"There are more opportunities in today's Marine Corps for you to do the things that you want and for you to be good at," McCarthy said.

But retired Col. James Van Riper told Marine Corps Times he takes issue with what he sees as the implication of Talent Management: that Marines need to be managed, rather than led.

"While Marine leaders may manage materials, equipment, budgets, etc., they necessarily lead Marines, for Marines are not inanimate objects to be dealt with in the same manner as budgets or the handling of materials and equipment," he wrote via email in January.

Your bonus is that you get a bonus

One kind of reenlistment incentive the Corps is offering Marines is financial.

At a conference in February 2023, Gen. Eric Smith, now the Marine commandant, sparked outrage among Marines by remarking on the idea of paying bonuses to recruits: "Your bonus is that you get to call yourself a Marine."

As the comment spread across social media, it often appeared shorn of the context about recruiting, such that many Marines seemed to think their assistant commandant was anti-bonus in all cases. Which, Smith maintained, was far from true.

"The Marines who have earned that eagle, globe and anchor, you're not who I was talking to," Smith, then the assistant commandant, told Marine Corps Times the day after that remark. "You, I want to give a bonus to."

In fact, the Marine Corps is offering a host of retention bonuses. And it actually does give out recruitment bonuses for certain job fields.

In 2024, infantrymen who reenlist can fetch a $27,000 reenlistment kicker, plus tens of thousands more depending on how much time they have served. Reenlisting air traffic controllers get $30,000. Several dozen other in-demand specialties rate reenlistment bonuses, too.

There are bonuses for Marines who stay on in the Reserve after active duty.

There are hefty kickers for Marines who switch into jobs like counterintelligence and drone operating.

There are pay bumps for recruiters and even greater pay bumps for those who agree to stay in that often thankless job for extra time.

Not all of these financial incentives are new. But the Marine Corps has increased its spending on special pay for enlisted Marines from $146 million in fiscal year 2017, or approximately $184 million in today's dollars, to $214 million in fiscal year 2023, according to budget documents.

Yet paying people more money costs money - and to get money, the Marine Corps relies on Congress.

Congress sets standard base pay for troops across the services. For other kinds of pay, the Marine Corps is also to a large extent at the mercy of Congress.

Lawmakers haven't yet passed the full budget for the fiscal year, leaving some of the financial incentives the Marine Corps has planned for in limbo, Reid said in January.

"We're not able to move quite as quickly as we wanted to this year to fully execute," the colonel said. "We're mitigating the risk right now to our retention plan. ... I think we're going to find a way to adapt."

Better barracks and chow - someday

Low pay, sluggish reenlistment processes and a lack of job choice are far from the only issues that have pushed good Marines to leave the Corps, Marine leaders have acknowledged.

The barracks, often known as "the bricks," are 34 years old on average, according to Smith, and often in a sorry state. Mold is a persistent problem in the Corps' barracks, as it is in other branches' housing.

The service is planning some improvements to barracks management, maintenance and furniture in the short term. On Feb. 7, it announced a "wall-to-wall" inspection of every single barracks room and squad bay to assess the problems in the facilities.

But better barracks won't come cheap or quickly.

The Marine Corps wants Congress to give it approximately $1.5 billion a year for barracks, up from $300 million a year, according to an internal memo obtained by Marine Corps Times. And it will take a decade to resolve the barracks problems, Smith said in October 2023.

In the meantime, the Corps' School of Infantry-East in North Carolina had to shut down a shower facility in December 2023 and send in a health inspector because of apparent black mold coating the ceiling. The following month, photos taken by a Marine at the West Coast infantry school revealed dead vermin and general disarray.

Corps leadership has an idea of what better barracks would look like.

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz posted an Instagram video in January showing off the glossy new barracks building for Marines at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, Virginia.

These "barracks of the future," as Ruiz called them, boast a gym, sleek lounge areas, in-room thermostats, walk-in closets and plenty of natural light.

"That's where we want to get to," Ruiz said.

The Marine Corps also sees food as an area it needs to improve if it wants to keep more Marines.

That could mean meal cards for Marines to use at a variety of on-base locations, Lt. Gen. James Glynn, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, told reporters in March 2023. The service also plans to invest in renovating its chow halls, Smith said the same month.

"In the future world of recruiting challenges, we cannot lose a 12-year intelligence professional or artillery Marine because we could not provide access to pediatric care or a high quality chow hall," the Marine Corps warned that month in an update to its Talent Management 2030 plan.

'Miss the clowns, not the circus'

After Marine Corps Times published a call for readers to weigh in for this story, more than 200 responses poured in, providing an unscientific overview of why Marines leave the service. Each told a unique story.

Some left because they lacked opportunities in their job fields, a problem the Marine Corps is now trying to counteract by offering more lateral moves, or they couldn't get promoted. Some left because of medical issues, exacerbated by physical training and the Corps' suck-it-up mentality.

Some left because they were disillusioned with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the vaccine mandate or the introduction of women into infantry jobs. Some left because they faced discrimination on the basis of their race, sexuality or gender.

Some left because their spouses threatened them with divorce if they didn't leave, and sometimes those spouses divorced them anyway. Some left because they hated being forced to serve as recruiters. Some left because they wanted to pursue full-time college or higher-paying jobs.

But one theme emerged again and again: Lots of Marines left because they hated the way their leaders treated them.

Multiple veterans complained of "being treated like a child" and of "fuck-fuck games," the colorful term describing the useless or nearly useless tasks that leaders sometimes force junior Marines to do. More than a dozen used the word "toxic" to describe their leadership.

These veterans said they left because of the gunnery sergeant who denied a Marine's request to visit a dying grandmother, the second lieutenant who refused to promote a corporal who had romantic success with a certain woman they both liked, the sergeant major who yelled at Marines for there being too much dirt under the bushes by the barracks.

Many of the veterans who wrote to Marine Corps Times said they missed their peers but not their unit's leaders: "miss the clowns, not the circus," as one put it.

Back in 2021, the Marine Corps touted one new initiative as a way to prevent toxic leadership - to clean up the circus. The service said it would solicit reviews from leaders' peers and subordinates, not just their supervisors, and incorporate that "360-degree feedback" into decisions about which leaders got promoted.

Then the Corps walked back that plan.

In May 2023, it unveiled a pilot program that would collect 360-degree feedback on a select group of leaders. But the feedback would be used only to help leaders "construct a development plan that leverages their identified strengths and addresses any blind spots."

It wouldn't factor into decisions about promotion decisions.

"When we began conducting our background research on how to execute a 360-degree review we identified incongruities with our objectives when used as an evaluation tool," Marine spokesman Maj. Jordan Cochran said in a statement at the time. "These incongruities are not a concern when the tool is used strictly for development purposes."

Ruiz, the top enlisted Marine, acknowledged in a January statement to Marine Corps Times that "leadership undoubtedly contributes to Marines' plans in and out of service."

But he said quality-of-life issues are at the forefront of what the Corps sees when it assesses separation trends.

"Marines made a promise to this nation that they will fight and win when called upon," Ruiz said. "Their service cannot be taken for granted, and it's our responsibility as leaders to provide quality care, quality living conditions and transparent leadership."

Ruiz told Marine Corps Times on Jan. 31 that he benefited from good leaders who took the time to push him - an immigrant from Mexico who "came from nothing" - to try new things, to challenge himself.

"If that doesn't happen during your time wearing a uniform, then you're going to seek it somewhere else," Ruiz said.

John, who threw his reenlistment package into a trash can nearly eight years ago and recently became a Navy officer, said his time in the Marine Corps wasn't all bad.

But he didn't like the way higher-ranking Marines in his unit treated junior Marines: reluctant to take their ideas seriously, all too quick to punish them for small infractions.

He wants to make sure his sailors don't face the kind of treatment that once discouraged him from reenlisting.

"The nonsense wears on people's minds," John said.

Kerns, the aircraft mechanic who reenlisted in 2023, said his leaders are one reason he is staying in.

Recently, even though his unit really needs him at work, leaders there let him spend three weeks at the Corporals Course, which he must complete in order to get promoted to sergeant. He saw that as them looking out for his career.

The Marine Corps has given him so much, the corporal said: strong values and interpersonal skills, leaders who support him, the chance to serve his country.

For Kerns, at least, the Marine Corps delivered on its promises. Now he wants to give back. ■

Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.

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The Corps has a plan to stop Marines from leaving. Is it working?

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More and more Marines are opting to stay for second enlistments. But the Marine Corps has room to grow in retention.

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"Marines are different. We share an uncommon willingness to fight and win battles—a distinction that sets the Marine Corps apart. Through basic and advanced training we make Marines adaptable to defeat unknown and unpredictable threats to our Nation."

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Radio operator

Automotive mechanic

Air traffic controller

Intelligence specialist

Infantryman

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On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia passed a resolution stating that "two Battalions of Marines be raised" for service as landing forces with the fleet. This resolution established the Continental Marines and marked the birth date of the United States Marine Corps. Serving on land and at sea, these first Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations, including their first amphibious raid into the Bahamas in March 1776, under the command of Captain (later Major) Samuel Nicholas. The first commissioned officer in the Continental Marines, Nicholas remained the senior Marine officer throughout the American Revolution and is considered to be the first Marine Commandant. The Treaty of Paris in April 1783 brought an end to the Revolutionary War and as the last of the Navy's ships were sold, the Continental Navy and Marines went out of existence.

Following the Revolutionary War and the formal re-establishment of the Marine Corps on 11 July 1798, Marines saw action in the quasi-war with France, landed in Santo Domingo, and took part in many operations against the Barbary pirates along the "Shores of Tripoli".

Marines took part in numerous naval operations during the War of 1812, as well as participating in the defense of Washington at Bladensburg, Maryland, and fought alongside Andrew Jackson in the defeat of the British at New Orleans.

The decades following the War of 1812 saw the Marines protecting American interests around the world, in the Caribbean, at the Falkland Islands, Sumatra and off the coast of West Africa, and also close to home in operations against the Seminole Indians in Florida.

During the Mexican War (1846-1848), Marines seized enemy seaports on both the Gulf and Pacific coasts. A battalion of Marines joined General Winfield Scott's army at Pueblo and fought all the way to the "Halls of Montezuma," Mexico City. Marines also served ashore and afloat in the Civil War (1861-1865). Although most service was with the Navy, a battalion fought at Bull Run and other units saw action with the blockading squadrons and at Cape Hatteras, New Orleans, Charleston, and Fort Fisher. The last third of the 19th century saw Marines making numerous landings throughout the world, especially in the Orient and in the Caribbean area.

Following the Spanish-American War (1898), in which Marines performed with valor in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, the Corps entered an era of expansion and professional development.

It saw active service in the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902), the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900). and in numerous other nations, including Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Mexico, and Haiti.
In World War I the Marine Corps distinguished itself on the battlefields of France as the 4th Marine Brigade earned the title of "Devil Dogs" for heroic action during 1918 at Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Michiel, Blanc Mont, and in the final Meuse-Argonne offensive.
Marine aviation, which dates from 1912, also played a part in the war effort, as Marine pilots flew day bomber missions over France and Belgium. More than 30,000 Marines served in France and more than a third were killed or wounded in six months of intense fighting.

During the two decades before World War II, the Marine Corps began to develop in earnest the doctrine, equipment, and organization needed for amphibious warfare. The success of this effort was proven first on Guadalcanal, then on Bougainville, Tarawa, New Britain, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. By the end of the war in 1945, the Marine Corps had grown to include six divisions, five air wings, and supporting troops. Its strength in World War II peaked at 485,113. The war cost the Marines nearly 87,000 dead and wounded, and 82 Marines had earned the Medal of Honor.

While Marine units took part in the post-war occupation of Japan and North China, studies were undertaken at Quantico, Virginia, which concentrated on attaining a "vertical envelopment" capability for the Corps through the use of helicopters.

Landing at Inchon, Korea in September 1950, Marines proved that the doctrine of amphibious assault was still viable and necessary. After the recapture of Seoul, the Marines advanced to the Chosin Reservoir only to see the Chinese Communists enter the war. After years of offensives, counter-offensives, seemingly endless trench warfare, and occupation duty, the last Marine ground troops were withdrawn in March 1955. More than 25,000 Marines were killed or wounded during the Korean War.

In July 1958, a brigade-size force landed in Lebanon to restore order. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, a large amphibious force was marshaled but not landed. In April 1965, a brigade of Marines landed in the Dominican Republic to protect Americans and evacuate those who wished to leave.

The landing of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade at Da Nang in 1965 marked the beginning of large-scale Marine involvement in Vietnam. By summer 1968, after the enemy's Tet Offensive, Marine Corps strength in Vietnam rose to a peak of approximately 85,000. The Marine withdrawal began in 1969 as the South Vietnamese began to assume a larger role in the fighting; the last Marine ground forces were out of Vietnam by June 1971.

The Vietnam War, longest in the history of the Marine Corps, exacted a high cost as well with over 13,000 Marines killed and more than 88,000 wounded. In the spring of 1975, Marines evacuated embassy staffs, American citizens, and refugees in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. In May, Marines played an integral role in the rescue of the crew of the SS Mayaguez captured off the coast of Cambodia.

The mid-1970s saw the Marine Corps assume an increasingly significant role in defending NATO's northern flank as amphibious units of the 2d Marine Division participated in exercises throughout northern Europe. The Marine Corps also played a key role in the development of the Rapid Deployment Force, a multi-service organization created to insure a flexible, timely military response around the world when needed. The Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS) concept was developed to enhance this capability by prestaging equipment needed for combat in the vicinity of the designated area of operations, and reduce response time as Marines travel by air to link up with MPS assets.

The 1980s brought an increasing number of terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies around the world. Marine Security Guards, under the direction of the State Department, continued to serve with distinction in the face of this challenge. In August 1982, Marine units landed at Beirut, Lebanon, as part of the multi-national peace-keeping force. For the next 19 months these units faced the hazards of their mission with courage and professionalism. In October 1983, Marines took part in the highly successful, short-notice intervention in Grenada. As the decade of the 1980s came to a close, Marines were summoned to respond to instability in Central America. Operation Just Cause was launched in Panama in December 1989 to protect American lives and restore the democratic process in that nation.

Less than a year later, in August 1990, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait set in motion events that would lead to the largest movement of Marine Corps forces since World War II. Between August 1990 and January 1991, some 24 infantry battalions, 40 squadrons, and more than 92,000 Marines deployed to the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield. Operation Desert Storm was launched 16 January 1991, the day the air campaign began.

The main attack came overland beginning 24 February when the 1st and 2d Marine Divisions breached the Iraqi defense lines and stormed into occupied Kuwait. By the morning of February 28, 100 hours after the ground war began, almost the entire Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti theater of operations had been encircled, with 4,000 tanks destroyed and 42 divisions destroyed or rendered ineffective.

Overshadowed by the events in the Persian Gulf during 1990-91, were a number of other significant Marine deployments demonstrating the Corps' flexible and rapid response. Included among these were non-combatant evacuation operations in Liberia and Somalia and humanitarian lifesaving operations in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and northern Iraq.

In December 1992, Marines landed in Somalia marking the beginning of a two-year humanitarian relief operation in that famine-stricken and strife-torn nation. In another part of the world, Marine Corps aircraft supported Operation Deny Flight in the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina. During April 1994, Marines once again demonstrated their ability to protect American citizens in remote parts of the world when a Marine task force evacuated U.S. citizens from Rwanda in response to civil unrest in that country.

Closer to home, Marines went ashore in September 1994 in Haiti as part of the U.S. force participating in the restoration of democracy in that country. During this same period Marines were actively engaged in providing assistance to the Nation's counter-drug effort, assisting in battling wild fires in the western United States, and aiding in flood and hurricane relief operations.

The Marine Corps continued its tradition of innovation to meet the challenges of a new century. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory was created in 1995 to evaluate change, assess the impact of new technologies on warfighting, and expedite the introduction of new capabilities into the operating forces of the Marine Corps. Exercises such as "Hunter Warrior," and "Urban Warrior" were designed to explore future tactical concepts, and to examine facets of military operations in urban environments.

During the late 1990's, Marine Corps units deployed to several African nations, including Liberia, the Central African Republic, Zaire, and Eritrea, in order to provide security and assist in the evacuation of American citizens during periods of political and civil instability in those nations.

Humanitarian and disaster relief operations were also conducted by Marines during 1998 in Kenya, and in the Central American nations of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In 1999, Marine units deployed to Kosovo in support of Operation Allied Force. Soon after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., Marine units deployed to the Arabian Sea and in November set up a forward operating base in southern Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

In 2002, the Marine Corps continued to play a key role in the Global War on Terrorism. Marines operated in diverse locations, from Afghanistan, to the Arabian Gulf, to the Horn of Africa and the Philippines. Early 2003 saw the largest deployment of Marine forces since the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 when 76,000 Marines deployed to the Central Command area for combat operations against Iraq.

The I Marine Expeditionary Force, including Task Force Tarawa and the United Kingdom's 1st Armored Division, were the first conventional ground units to enter Iraq in late March as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft from the 3d Marine Air Wing provided continuous close air and assault support to Marine and coalition units as they drove deeper into Iraq. On the ground, Marines from I MEF moved nearly 400 miles from the Kuwait border to Baghdad and Tikrit, Iraq, and eliminated the last organized resistance by Iraqi military forces. Although I MEF would transition to stabilization and security operations and then redeploy to the U.S. by late September, I MEF began preparing for a return to Iraq in early 2004.

The adaptability and reliability of Marine forces continued to be highlighted around the world from the Horn of Africa to Haiti and to the Philippines.

Across the U.S., Marine units from both coasts fought and contained wildfires, and also supported hurricane relief efforts in various parts of the country. In December, 2004, a tsunami struck numerous nations in the Indian Ocean region killing more than 150,000 and causing enormous devastation. Marine units from III MEF were immediately deployed to Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka to assist in disaster relief operations.

In early 2005, the II Marine Expeditionary Force replaced I MEF in Iraq as the primary focus began to shift to partnership operations with the Iraqi Security Forces. Marine units continued to provide air and ground support to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Closer to home, the flexibility and responsiveness of the Navy/Marine team was exhibited during September and October when nearly 3000 Marines and sailors conducted search and rescue, humanitarian relief, and disaster recovery operations in Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Today's Marine Corps stands ready to continue in the proud tradition of those who so valiantly fought and died at Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir, and Khe Sanh. Combining a long and proud heritage of faithful service to the nation, with the resolve to face tomorrow's challenges will continue to keep the Marine Corps the "best of the best."

Reference Branch
USMC History Division
July 2006

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Brief History of the United States Marine Corps

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"Marine Corps recruit training is approximately 13 weeks long. Receiving is the first week and actual training takes place for 12 weeks after that."

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To join the Marines you have to have a passing sore of 35