Recruit to gunny: 1st Marine graduates from talent acquisition program
By Hope Hodge Seck
Friday, Dec 20, 2024
When Justin Kelley left the Air Force in 2015, he was an E-5 – a staff sergeant in the service’s rank structure. But when he graduated Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, on Friday, he became a gunnery sergeant — a two-rank promotion that will propel him directly into the Corps’ seasoned noncommissioned officer ranks.
This unconventional promotion, particularly for the Marine Corps, which often requires service transfers to start from the beginning of the rank structure, is thanks to the Marine Corps Talent Acquisition Program, or MCTAP, an initiative announced earlier this year designed to attract high-demand cyberspace warfare and signals intelligence talent into the service with the added incentive of seniority.
First promoted in June, the program quickly received some 50 applicants, representing prior-service Marines who’d gotten out; prospective transfers from other services; and civilians who’d never served before, said Master Gunnery Sgt. Sage Goyda, the program’s lead planner.
From that group, three were selected in an intensive application and interview process to participate in the program. Kelley, the only selectee who was not a prior Marine, was the first to enter the pipeline, checking into boot camp in September alongside all the other young recruits.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/12/20/recruit-to-gunny-1st-marine-graduates-from-talent-acquisition-program/
