Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

186 • The Army National Guard, the Army Reserve and the Marine Corps Reserveare prior-service noncommissioned officers who, after proving themselves as squadleaders and platoon sergeants, become warrant officer platoon commanders or commissionedofficers. A few are officers who, after three or more years of service with theactive-duty Marine Corps, have decided to join an academic lifecycle battalion insteadof returning directly to civilian life. The common element in the civilian occupationsof these reserve officers is the ability to participate in the three periods of refreshertraining that take place in the third, fourth and fifth year of the battalion’s existence.That is to say, while a few of them work in seasonal industries other than education,the vast majority of them are school teachers, graduate students or academics.Many of the noncommissioned officers of academic lifecycle battalions are Marineswho, having already completed several years of active duty, have re-enlisted as reservists.Like those who join an academic lifecycle battalion directly from civilian life,these Marines are on a path that leads to a college degree. Other noncommissionedofficers are career Marines who serve with an academic lifecycle battalion during theearly years of its existence, passing on their expertise to the reserve Marines who willremain with the unit until it is disbanded. As these career Marines depart, prior-servicereservists take their places. This, in turn, creates opportunities for first-term enlisteesto serve in more demanding leadership positions.In the event of mobilization, the Marine Corps can use each of its academic lifecyclebattalions in one of two very different ways. If the need for additional forces iseither modest or particularly immediate, a lifecycle battalion can immediately take itsplace in the order of battle of the operational forces. If there is a need to create newunits, a mature lifecycle battalion can undergo “mitosis,” providing the organizationalframework for the creation of two, three or four “daughter battalions.” While it wouldtake some time to integrate new members into the daughter battalions, the cadre ofsuch units would enjoy a high degree of internal cohesion from the very start. 3Most academic lifecycle battalions are either ground combat units (e.g. infantry,tank or light armor) or ground-oriented combat support units (e.g. field artillery,combat engineer or assault amphibian). In some cases, the organization and training ofthese units is very similar to that of comparable units of the active-duty Marine Corps.In other cases, such as those of reserve units that specialize in certain environments(e.g. cold weather) and battalions armed with weapons that are not normally employedby active component units (e.g. certain types of artillery pieces), academic lifecyclebattalions will have no exact active duty counterparts. Academic lifecycle battalionsof this latter sort will serve to provide the Marine Corps with capabilities that wouldotherwise require the maintenance of units on full-time active duty.Not all units of the Marine Corps Reserve are academic lifecycle battalions. A numberof aviation, logistics and military police units are formed, trained and employed inmuch the same way as the “parallel occupation” units of the U.S. Army Reserve. Thus,while all members of these units undergo the common experiences that define service