The United States Marine Corps Reserve: A Total Force
As an integral part of the Total Force, the Marine Corps Reserve plays a key role in providing that national security force in readiness. Over the past year, the Marine Corps Reserve supported Combatant Commanders by providing forces focused on combat operations, crisis prevention, crisis response, and theater security cooperation. Global deployments, along with participation in Service, Joint, and multi-national exercises, develop the depth of experience of the Reserve Force, ensuring the Marine Corps Reserve is relevant, ready, and responsive to meet Combatant Commanders’ requirements.
On average in 2019, the Marine Corps Reserve provided approximately 11 percent of the Total Force’s forward deployed forces for approximately 5 percent of the Marine Corps’ budget. In 2019, 2,624 Reserve Marines mobilized supporting 45 operational requirements in each of the six geographic Combatant Commands. This is approximately a 19 percent increase in personnel deployed and 22 percent increase in operational requirements compared to 2018. Likewise, 9,944 Reservists participated in 43 training exercises, supporting requirements in 21 countries across the globe. The Marine Corps Reserve filled 59 percent of the total service individual augment requirements. We continue to meet the increased demand for use as an operational reserve, though this has begun to challenge readiness to meet strategic requirements.
In 2020, the Marine Corps Reserve will continue to support the Combatant Commanders by mobilizing in excess of 800 Reservists supporting approximately 27 formations. Over the course of 2020, more than 8,000 Marines will support theater-specific exercises, security cooperation events, and “standing” operations across every Combatant Command. These operations and exercises greatly increase the Reserve Component’s interoperability with the Active Component, Joint Forces, our allies, and coalition partners.
The Marine Corps Reserve continues to provide daily support to Combatant Commanders in a wide range of roles that include multi-national exercises, such as Dynamic Front 20 in Latvia, New Horizons 20 in South America, and Maple Resolve 20 in Canada. I anticipate the Marine Corps Reserve will continue to deploy across the globe and to integrate with the Active Component in support of high-priority Combatant Commander requirements for the foreseeable future. In 2019, 23 of the 45 formations activated were deployed to the CENTCOM AOR and in 2020, the Marine Corps Reserve will activate an additional eight Reserve formations that will deploy to the CENTCOM AOR. In 2020, the Marine Corps Reserve has also continued to deploy reconnaissance, assault amphibian, and combat engineer units to the Indo-Pacific Area of Responsibility in support of III Marine Expeditionary Force’s requirements in Okinawa, Japan.
In addition, the Marine Corps Reserve has recently increased its participation in the Department of Defense’s Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) program. This program provides military training opportunity, exclusive to the United States and its territories, which delivers joint training opportunities to increase deployment readiness. Simultaneously, IRT provides key services (health care, construction, transportation, and cybersecurity) with lasting benefits for our American communities. The IRT program has allowed our units to increase deployment readiness by training to mission essential tasks, while also training with their counterparts from different services and making tangible, meaningful impacts in their communities. Utilizing $1 million from the Marine Corps and $780,000 from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Marine Corps Reserve supported 7 exercises, a 50% increase from 2018. Examples include diverse construction-training that supported the Girl Scouts at Camp Paumalu, Hawaii; relocating the Village of Newtok, Alaska; and repairing a remote airfield in California. With your continued support of these efforts, we look to expand to 12 exercises that will include construction, medical, and cybersecurity efforts.
In addition to participating in operational requirements across the globe, the Marine Corps Reserve supports the Total Force by dutifully executing the sensitive and crucial mission of providing casualty assistance to the families of our fallen Marines. There is no responsibility that we treat with higher regard than the solemn mission of providing casualty assistance. Inspector-Instructor and Reserve Site Support Staffs are geographically positioned to accomplish the vast majority of Marine Corps casualty assistance calls and are trained to provide compassionate and thorough assistance to families. Indeed, the majority of Marine Corps casualty notifications and follow-on assistance calls to the next of kin are made by our Marines. During Calendar Year (CY) 2019, our Inspector-Instructor and Reserve Site Support staffs performed 95 percent of the casualty calls performed by the Marine Corps.
The professionalism and compassion of our Casualty Assistance Calls Officers (CACOs) continues well beyond the initial notification. We ensure that our CACOs are well trained, equipped, and supported by all levels of command through the combination of in-person and online training. Once assigned, the CACO serves as the family’s central point of contact and coordinates with funeral homes, government agencies, and other organizations. They assist family members with planning the return and final resting place of their Marine and ensure the filing of appropriate documents so families receive all benefits they are entitled. In many cases, our CACOs provide a long-lasting bridge between the Marine Corps and the grieving family.
Additionally, the Marine Corps Reserve units and personnel provide significant support in the form of military funeral honors for our veterans. The Marine Corps Reserve performed 20,416 military funeral honors which represented 93 percent of all funeral honors rendered by the Marine Corps during 2019. As with casualty assistance, we place enormous emphasis on providing timely, compassionate, and professionally executed military funeral honors. Although this comes with a cost to readiness, some Marine Corps Reserve units are executing in excess of 500 funerals per year.
Finally, the Marine Corps Reserve functions as the greatest link between the Marine Corps and communities across the Nation. We are the face of the Marine Corps to the majority of the American public. With Reserve units located across the country, the Marine Corps Reserve is uniquely positioned to interact with the American public and communicate the Marine Corps story to our fellow citizens; most of whom have little or no contact with the Marine Corps. Last year, Marine Corps Reserve personnel and units conducted more than 500 local and regional public engagement and community relations events across the country.
Lt. Gen. David G. Bellon
Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve
Commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces North
