The Marines Are Looking for a Few Older People
The Corps’ shift to a lighter, distributed force requires skills and judgment that may be easier to recruit than build, training chief says.
By Caitlin M. Kenney
Staff Reporter
September 16, 2021 07:22 PM ET
The Marines are looking for a few older people—at least, a few years older than typical recruits. That’s because the Corps will need troops with new combinations of tech skills and mature judgment to meet the challenges and threats expected by 2030, according to the service’s trainer-in-chief.
“If we think about what the commandant is asking us to do as part of the inside force—a force that will live, compete, contest, and then have to possibly transition to crisis and conflict later on—we need very, very intelligent Marines,” Lt. Gen. Kevin Iiams, who leads the Marine Corps’ Training and Education Command, said during Defense One’s State of Defense event Thursday.
This new level of critical thinking is needed to meet Gen. David Berger’s Force Design 2030 vision, which seeks to reorient the Corps toward expeditionary and distributed maritime operations. Iiams said these concepts will require Marines who can operate on their own in remote locations, thinking strategically as well as tactically.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/09/marines-are-looking-few-older-people/185410/
