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PHOTO BY LANCE CPL. REECE LODDER
“We’re not drawing the Marine Corps down one Marine prior to coming out of Afghanistan,” Gen. James F. Amos, the new commandant of the Corps, said yesterday at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
The new commandant of the Marine Corps revealed during a visit to Marine Corps Base Hawaii yesterday that the size of the Corps would drop to 186,800 from 202,000 after the U.S. pulls out of Afghanistan.
It was the first time Gen. James F. Amos specified a number, which follows a force structure review launched in September and is intended as a step to address years of excess wartime budgets amid a faltering economy.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in early January that the Corps’ strength would decline by between 15,000 and 20,000 troops starting in 2015 based on the assumption that ground forces in Afghanistan would be "significantly reduced" by the end of 2014.
Talking to more than 2,000 Marines at Kaneohe Bay’s Dewey Square, Amos stressed that the reduction would not start until Afghanistan operations are ended.
"We’re not drawing the Marine Corps down one Marine prior to coming out of Afghanistan," Amos said. "I want to be crystal clear about that. No. 1 is to finish the mission in Afghanistan. There is no more important thing."
He also noted that the force still would exceed the size of the Corps at the start of the Iraq War in 2003, when there were 182,000 Marines.
Amos, who was twice stationed at Kaneohe Bay, made his first return this week after becoming the 35th commandant of the Marine Corps in October.
Amos and the Marine Corps’ top enlisted person, Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, spoke to the Marines about the repeal of "don’t ask, don’t tell" prohibiting gays to serve openly in the military, and Amos’ optimism about the future of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet, among other issues.
As the service branches move forward with implementation and training for the "don’t ask, don’t tell" repeal, Amos said he expects platoon sergeants and company first sergeants to figure out the best way to handle conflicts.
"If there’s an issue in a room, then I expect you to solve it," he said. "I’m not going to tell you how to solve it. I’m not going to build twice as many barracks, I’m not going to segregate people out. … We’re not going to do that."
Amos put himself at odds with Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen last year when he opposed the repeal.
But after legislation was passed, Amos said in a Marine Corps video, "I want to be clear to all Marines, we will step out smartly to faithfully implement this new law."
Amos was optimistic about the future of a vertical takeoff version of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B, which Gates put on probation for two years. Amos said F-35Bs are critically needed to replace aging AV-8 Harriers on 11 "big deck" amphibious ships.
