Marines Ready to Call Back Thousands of Reservists

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2006 — -- The Marine Corps is getting ready to notify thousands of Marines who have recently left the service that they may soon be needed back in uniform to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The move is to make up for a shortfall of volunteers from the Marine Corps Individual Ready Reserve who have been serving in hard-to-fill positions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tours of duty will likely last an average of 12 to 18 months as they train with their new units, deploy and return home.

Service members who decide to leave active duty or retire automatically become members of the Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR, for varying lengths of time.

Unlike Marine Corps Reservists who regularly train with their units, the only requirement of IRR Marines is that they present themselves once a year to update their contact information. There are currently 59,000 former Marines serving in the Individual Ready Reserve.

Col. Guy Stratton of the Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Office said the decision to activate the IRR is "judicious and prudent ... at a time of war and national emergency."

Stratton said he estimates there is a current shortfall of about 1,200 Marines needed to fill positions in upcoming unit deployments.

IRR Marines can still volunteer, but the Marine Corps will now supplement the number of volunteers by involuntarily activating as many as 2,500 former Marines.

Marine briefers emphasize that this number is merely a top-scale figure gleaned from recent historical averages, and that only "a relatively small number will be selected" from the available pool.

Positions that need to be filled include communications, intelligence, engineers, truck drivers and military police. It is likely, however, that the majority of the positions will be in the infantry.

It is the first time the IRR has been activated since the start of the ground war in Iraq when more than 2,600 were called back to active duty. This time around, the authorization allowing the IRR's activation is open-ended, so from now on as many as 2,500 recent former Marines a year can expect to be called back to active duty in the Centcom area of operation, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan.