Despite the drawdown, Marine Corps Recruiting Command leadership has plans to roll out a number of new efforts in the year ahead.
Those include a new advertising campaign and the reintroduction of more events related to the Semper Fidelis Bowl, said Maj. Gen. Mark Brilakis, MCRC's commanding general.
The ad campaign "Home of the Brave, Land That We Love" is in post production and will hit prime time in the next few months, he said. It follows "Towards the Sounds of Chaos," released in 2012.
While Brilakis declined to release specific details about the upcoming commercial spots, the big pitch will be service to nation, a message he said seems to resound with the the current generation of millennials. The fact is, many of the young adults the Marine Corps is recruiting were just a few years old on Sept. 11, 2001, and their chance to serve in Afghanistan has passed.
While Towards the Sounds of Chaos emphasized service, it also highlighted combat and crisis response. The new campaign, it would seem, places an even greater focus on service to the nation. That mirrors a likely shift in the pitch recruiters will have to begin making to recruits as combat operations in Afghanistan draw to a close.
"There were many individuals who joined the Marine Corps and Army because they saw it as an opportunity to serve like their parents and grandparents had served," Brilakis said, alluding to World War II and Vietnam.
Now recruiters may find themselves fighting the perception that there is nothing left to do, he said. But, he added that deployment tempo is holding and the service will find itself on much the same footing as it was on before 9/11. Recruiters will emphasize the Corps' return to its traditional expeditionary mission, which includes the rapidly growing crisis response mission, Marine expeditionary unit deployments and the Unit Deployment Program.
Recruiting Command's other main line of effort in the year to come is its expansion of the Semper Fidelis Bowl. Last year, coinciding with the start of the NFL season, MCRC launched the Semper Fidelis Football Program Selection Tour, which eventually culminated with a televised game that brought together about 90 high school football players from across the country.
While the program was nearly canceled due to funding, the commandant pushed to keep the event despite costs of about $2.6 million annually. It is now expanding to include football camps for children in the communities they visit who may have no chance at eventually being selected for the final teams. That allows recruiters to communicate the Corps' values to even more teenagers, parents, educators and community leaders.
The effort doesn't recruit individuals, but communities, Brilakis said. That can pay significant dividends in the long run as coaches, parents, teachers and siblings become more likely to support, if not encourage, young members of their community to consider military service.
