The Manpower Structure of the Marine Corps Casualty Branch
Abstract
The Marine Corps Casualty Branch, composed of less than 20 Marines and civilians, handles everything from death and injury entitlements, funeral honors, and prisoner of war/missing in action recovery. The Marine Corps prides itself on providing the minimum required human resources, but the Corps is doing so at the risk of not properly sourcing the manpower it requires. Restructuring the Marine Corps Casualty Section's table of organization to provide service members and their families with the attention they deserve is necessary. First, the T/O must be remodeled to reflect a more robust administrative staff, not necessarily with numbers, but with experience. Addressing leadership should be the initial priority. A field grade adjutant should be placed in charge of the casualty branch to give it the aforementioned leadership and administrative knowledge required. The GS-13 would make an excellent choice for assistant branch head and would still give continuity to the section. The operations chief is a billet more suitable for a master sergeant vice a staff sergeant. The change would add to the experience and maturity level of what the billet requires as well as appropriate mentorship of the junior enlisted of the branch and the staff noncommissioned officers (SNCOs) of subordinate units. Next, the Funeral Honors section must be delineated on the branch's T/O. This section should be lead by a senior SNCO, preferably a gunnery sergeant with a drill instructor background. This would ensure some working knowledge of drill and ceremonies and be supported by a staff sergeant and possibly two clerks. The benefit to remodeling the T/O in such a way would ensure routine sourcing from within the regular Marine Corps and not be dependent on the reserves. Lastly, the Marine Hospital Liaisons should be task organized under the Marine Corps Casualty Branch. This would ensure shared situational awareness and eliminate the duplicating of administrative efforts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA503845
Entities
People
- B. S. Taylor
Organizations
- Marine Corps University