Post-9/11 Field Grade Officer Requirements in the Marine Corps Reserve

The Reserve Affairs RA division at Headquarters Marine Corps HQMC requested the development of a model to determine affiliation and participation rates for field grade officers for a projected officer population in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve SMCR and the Individual Mobilization Augment IMA program, and a corresponding mobilization requirement among un-affiliated officers. This thesis analyzes roughly 20 years of Marine Corps Reserve officer inventory history. It examines how the Marine Corps Reserves current grade strength inventory evolved and uses that inventory data to develop a reference table for use by RA to better plan for future requirements. This table will allow RA to plan for how many of each field grade rank are required in inventory to maintain an acceptable manning rate so that the Marine Reserve is not left short-handed in those categories, or have too many under-employed officers.