Marine Corps chief says building a larger force will be tough

Marine Corps Commandant James Conway on Tuesday acknowledged that increasing the size of his force by 27,000 troops over the next five years would be no easy task.

"It is going to be a challenge," Conway told the House Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, adding that recruiters already must work hard to meet their current goals. The Marine Corps exceeded its February recruiting goal by 6 percent, according to figures released Monday by the Defense Department.

But Conway, who took over as Marine Corps chief late last year, said he had seen a "troubling trend" in recent polls that indicated that the propensity to join the military was waning across all races, a circumstance that will only exacerbate his coming recruitment challenges.

As it prepares to try to attract 5,000 more new troops each year over the next five years, the Marine Corps is pressing its re-enlistment efforts, encouraging more Marines to sign up for a second tour. The service also will increase its pool of recruiters, pour more money into advertising campaigns, and possibly offer bonuses to entice potential enlistees.

But Conway cautioned that bonuses might not be as generous or numerous as the other services, saying it is "not our culture" to do so. The service does not plan to lower its recruitment standards, but may have to sign a larger number of waivers for recruits now than in the past, Conway said.

In January, President Bush announced plans to increase the size of the military by adding 92,000 new soldiers and Marines to alleviate stress on the heavily deployed ground forces. Conway supported those efforts Tuesday, stating in written testimony that boosting the Marine Corps' size to 202,000 troops will reduce the strain on both individual Marines and the force as a whole.

Currently, many Marine combat units are home seven months or less between seven-month deployments overseas, according to the commandant's prepared testimony. Also on Tuesday, Chief of Naval Operations Michael Mullen said he would need almost 1,000 additional sailors to support the growing Marine Corps.

The subcommittee called the hearing to focus on the Navy and Marine Corps' $2.1 billion request for military construction programs. But following recent revelations of squalid conditions and bureaucratic roadblocks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, lawmakers also questioned Conway and Mullen on the state of Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland and their other healthcare facilities.

Mullen and Conway assured lawmakers that Bethesda, though in need of some repair, was in good condition. They also said they created a task force, which includes the inspectors general from both services, to review and investigate the Navy's healthcare system.