Manpower officials are offering a generous composite score bonus to encourage more noncommissioned officers to affiliate with drilling units in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve.
Under the Fiscal Year 2015 Reserve Component Composite Score Points Bonus program, active-duty and prior-service corporals can receive up to 60 additional cutting score points for joining the Reserve with at least 12 months of obligated drilling time. Reserve corporals get the same bonus if they extend for a year to fill a specific vacant billet.
How much the bonus improves a Marine's chances of picking up rank depends on the level of competition in their job.
"It depends heavily on [military occupational specialty]," said Maj. Rob Dolan, a Manpower and Reserve Affairs spokesman at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. "It can be very helpful to Marines who have MOSs with high cutting scores to get to sergeant. Some Marines may have cutting scores in the 1700s. It takes a lot of time and effort for a Marine to accumulate a composite score in the 1700s, so an extra 60 points really helps."
Among those extremely competitive MOSs that have September cutting scores in the 1700s are nearly 40 from across multiple fields. Specific MOSs include 0111 administrative specialist, 0311 rifleman, 0621 field radio operator, 0844 field artillery fire control man, 1141 electrician, 1316 metal worker, 2161 machinist, and 3051 warehouse clerk, among others.
The Reserve is offering the incentive because they have suffered a significant and ongoing shortage of staff NCOs.
"We need a larger base of NCOs in order to feed into the staff NCO ranks," Dolan said. "We have been critically short of staff NCOs for years, and this is a tool to address that shortage."
To be eligible for the composite bonus, according to Marine administrative message 408/14, signed Aug. 14, Marines must:
¦ Be an active-duty corporal with an end of active service date prior to Oct. 1, 2015.
¦ Agree to directly affiliate with an SMCR unit to fill a specific billet.
¦ Have minimum 4.0/4.0 average proficiency/conduct marks.
¦ Be eligible and recommended for promotion to sergeant.
¦ Not be assigned to the Body Composition Program or Military Appearance Program.
¦ Not have been reduced in rank to current grade.¦
