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More academy grads pointed to Corps

More Naval Academy and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps midshipmen are going Marine, as the Navy expands opportunities for officers to head to the Corps to help the service reach its 202,000 end-strength goal.

The academy’s 2008 graduating class will have 235 Marine assignments, up more than 10 percent from two years ago. NROTC assignments will see a slight boost to 250 assignments in fiscal 2008, up from 246 two years ago, said Lt. Col. William Tosick, head of officer plans at Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va.

Those numbers will go up again next year, with an expected 270 Naval Academy midshipmen and 275 NROTC midshipmen going Marine, he said. By fiscal 2011, when the Corps will complete its end-strength increase, the service will receive 270 midshipmen from the academy and 380 from NROTC, Tosick said in a phone interview.

The academy assignment increase is expected to be good news for midshipmen, who make requests for the professions they hope to pursue but aren’t always able to get a first choice. Generally, more midshipmen want to go Marine than are able to do so, said Judy Campbell, Naval Academy spokeswoman, in a phone interview.

“Our goal in service assignment is to meet the needs of the Navy and the Marine Corps,” Campbell said.

The assignment expansion is expected to help offset the Corps’ officer recruiting demands in coming years, a manpower official said.

The Naval Academy and NROTC represent two of the four ways into the service for Marine officers. The others include the Platoon Leaders Class and Officer Candidates Course.

“Bottom line: The Marine Corps is growing,” and it needs to increase all accession sources, Tosick said.

The service’s strategy calls for a peak in commissions of second lieutenants within two years.

The Corps must commission 1,900 second lieutenants this fiscal year. It will need 2,050 second lieutenants in fiscal 2009 and 2,100 the year after, Tosick said.

“Marine Corps Recruiting Command will have to get the delta — whatever is left [after academy and NROTC assignments] — through PLC and officer candidate class,” he said.

The increase in seats going to the Corps has been a long time coming.

Until recent years, the Corps received only about 162 Naval Academy midshipmen a year, or about 16.7 percent of the class, Tosick said.

“That was generally because the Marine Corps made up that percentage of the Navy,” he said.

In 2004, the Navy and Marine Corps entered into an agreement to increase Marine assignments from the academy’s graduating class, as well as NROTC. In 2006, the Corps received 210 midshipmen from the academy and about 225 from NROTC, reflecting 21 percent and 22.5 percent, respectively, going Marine, Tosick said.

While an increase over historic levels, the boost in midshipman assignments still does not mirror the Corps’ officer ratio in the Navy Department, Tosick said.

The Navy’s officer corps is about 27 percent Marine, he said. By 2011, there will be 2,300 officers added to the Corps’ officer ranks, bumping up its portion of the Navy’s officer pool to about 30 percent, Tosick said.