Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford wants a better understanding of whether a poolee will make a successful Marine and he is turning to psychology for help.
Though details remain elusive, potential Marines in the future will undergo a psychological screening that will help recruiters determine whether he or she will successfully navigate the recruitment process and complete an enlistment. Recruits beginning their training also may be evaluated.
The new commandant announced the change to the recruiting process in his planning guidance for the Marine Corps, which was released Jan. 23. While praising the service's recruiters, Dunford indicated more could be done to boost the quality of volunteers.
"While our recruiters have met or exceeded all of our expectations in recent years, there is always room for improvement in our screening processes," he wrote.
Dunford directed Corps officials to examine psychological screening tools used by law enforcement agencies and special operations forces. The Corps will adopt those best suited to gauge a potential Marine's resiliency, he said.
Officials with Marine Corps Recruiting Command declined to comment on the proposal, instead directing questions to the Headquarters Marine Corps Office of U.S. Marine Corps Communications. Lt. Col. John Caldwell, a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon, said that though Dunford's road map only came out last week, the service already is evaluating psychological screening methods employed by state and federal agencies.
"The desired end-state is to increase the likelihood of a Marine successfully completing his or her initial commitment, while making the Marine Corps more combat ready and effective," Caldwell said in an emailed statement.
Requiring psychological evaluations of military recruits briefly surfaced in the national dialogue following a shooting last year at Fort Hood, Texas. In April, Army Spec. Ivan Lopez opened fire, killing three and wounding a dozen.
The killings — coming just years after a similarly horrific shooting at the same facility — prompted lawmakers in Washington to question whether a recruit's mental health required as much attention as physical fitness. While military officials review a potential recruit's medical history beforehand, thus giving them access to documented bouts of mental illness, there's little else in the way of a psychological evaluation.
Once in the armed forces, though, service members undergo regular mental health evaluations.
By contrast, many law enforcement agencies already require a psychological screening before hiring. The Virginia State Police, for example, has required a form of mental health evaluation for at least 20 years, said Capt. Joseph Walters, who oversees the program for the department.
Prospective troopers first fill out a questionnaire and then complete a survey before speaking chatting with a psychologist later in the hiring process. Eventually, a report highlighting areas of concern arrives, Walters said.
While it's not the sole basis for hiring or not hiring a potential trooper, it's an important part in the process, he said.
"[State police] investigate crimes; they're often placed in situations where they're by themselves; they work in very dangerous situations," Walters said. "We have to trust and know they will make good decisions ... It's very important."
The International Association of Chiefs of Police even offers a set of guidelines for local agencies to base their pre-employment screening process upon.
That organization's best practices include using a written test coupled with an in-person interview. A 2011 article in The Police Chief magazinepenned by Yossef S. Ben-Porath, a professor of psychology at Kent State University, and several other mental health professionals, argued for using these evaluations in conjunction with many law enforcement-related jobs.
Screenings identify the good and bad alike, they concluded.
"[Although] the pre-employment psychological evaluation is a critical part of the selection process for weapon-carrying officers, it also is a valuable screening tool for applicants to other job classifications in a law enforcement agency," the team wrote. "In these screening assessments, psychological suitability refers to both the absence of job-relevant risk factors and the presence of job-critical personal and interpersonal qualities."
It's appears to be the latter that has Dunford's attention, according to his planning guidance officials. Gauging a poolee or recruit's mental state ahead of enlistment will "enhance the quality and resilience of the force," he wrote in the planning guidance document.
