The Marine Corps Infantry Reserves: Supporting or Supported?

The total force readiness of the Marine Corps will never be obtained, or sustained, as long as the criteria for assigning junior leadership billets platoon commanders, company executive officers in the Reserve Component RC infantry regiments is based on rank and not on Military Occupational Specialty MOS. A Marine leader, regardless of whether he or she is serving in the Active Component AC or RC, must be trained in and be a duty expert in his or her assigned MOS. The Marine Corps cannot expect the RC to accomplish its mission requirements successfully if its assigned leaders do not possess the fundamental skills and formal training necessary to do the job. Assigning an officer to an MOS billet for which he or she is neither formally trained, nor experienced is a recipe for failure, especially in the reserve infantry regiments.