Mathematically, yes.  But in reality, maybe not. 

As Charles Murry pointed out half the people in the U.S. have below average intelligence.  (It is an obvious but rarely acknowledged truth.)

The number of people who have the desire to serve in the Marine Corps and who possess the requisite physical abilities and temperment is finite.  Then weed out those with criminal records, history of major drug use, who dropped out of high school and score below 32 on the ASVAB/AFQT and the pool of potentials is even smaller.

Then, in Marine Corps boot camp, there is a 10% attrition rate among the males due to injury or inability to handle the stress.

These are the basics.  And demanding more people out of a small pool would, mathematically require enlarging the pool.

I would put an even greater burden on the system.

In Iraq I learned first hand that a dumb grunt is a useless grunt.

The requisite GT (General Technical) score for an 0311 is 80.  That is the lowest minimum score in the Corps.

By way of camparison, the unit I rolled around with was comprised of 0352s, with a minimum GT of 90 and Marines of 3rd Recon Bn. who operated beside them in Amiriya had GTs of at least 105.  (More than half the Marines in the unit I was with were above GT 100.)

The nature of counter insurgency, resembling police work more than run and gun force on force combat, requires a little extra g power, which would make a minimum GT score of 100--the minimum for an MP--the preferred score for a grunt.

At about this point, every recruiter and manpower management officer is thinking I have gone mad, and maybe I have, but I look at the Corps from the perspective of a customer/investor.

The core precept of the Corps is that every Marine is a rifleman.  The core mission of a Marine rifle squad is to seek out, locate close with and destroy the enemy.  The secondary mission being to repel an enemy assault.

As a customer/investor, I want the Corps to seeking, locating, closing with and eliminating the enemy.

In counter-insurgency operations, that requires grunts with some g. 

Grunts who can discern patterns, learn local customs, learn some of the language, use an access database or even a relational database and engage in the basics of criminal investigation and questioning are more effective than brute force trigger pullers.

Given that there are few forces on the horizon that will be willing to engage us force on force and that the Marine Corps is already transitioning to distributed operations, the time to make the shift to the g-grunt is at hand.

As a customer/investor, I am willing to pay a little more, for a little more return.  Or pay a little more up front for the possiblity of a shorter war which saves me money on the back side.

By the same token, a young man who qualifies for an MOS that has a civillian application, needs to be given a little return on becoming a grunt, through enlistment bonuses, enhanced GI Bill, or the desire of all CEO's--perks.

The goal is to entice the young man who is interested in becoming a personnel clerk--because it provides some practical On The Job Training--into becoming a g-grunt.

The perks could be everything from being located in a better baracks to more relaxed leave and liberty schedules to--every 1st Sergeant's dread--a little longer hair, longer moustaches being allowed and no Class A uniform inspections.

(The biggest morale killer in Iraq is when a group of grunts who have been outside the wire for 2 weeks sneak into a base like TQ for an hour to grab a hot meal and are promptly dressed down by a Master Sergeant because they look like they have been outside the wire for 2 weeks.)

Elimination of open contract grunts--although a time honored tradition--would ensure that the fielded infantry really wants to be there and will be more proactive in operations.

But the perks and benefits would only work for shifting the pool of potentials from one MOS to another and could leave a gap in support MOSs.

The only solution to that is to reverse the restrictions placed on recruits who score below a 32 on the ASVAB/AFQT.  Instead of packing the infantry with low scoring Marines, they will be spread out over other MOSs.  Only certain percentage of lower scoring Marines would be waived in or placed in each non-combat MOS.

This will of course reduce the overall quality of recruits entering the fleet, but, will have no effect on the Corps primary mission of seeking, locating and destorying the enemy--and mission accomplishment is the primary principle of Marine Corps leadership.

Further Reading...

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