The Marine Corps has opened up lateral moves for officers to eight job fields, as part of the fiscal year 2022 officer lateral move program, according to an administrative message released Oct. 13.
Officers in the 0302 infantry officer, 1302 combat engineer officer, 1802 tank officer, 1803 assault amphibious vehicle officer, 5803 military police officer, 6002 aircraft maintenance officer, 6602 aviation supply officer and 7588 electronic countermeasures officer military occupational specialties are eligibly for the program.
They are eligible to apply for lateral entry into the 0102 manpower officer, 0202 intelligence officer, 0402 logistics officer, 0602 communications officer, 1702 cyberspace warfare officer and the 3002 ground supply officer job fields.
All, “unrestricted officers in the grades of captain through lieutenant colonel, to include captain selects,” are eligible for the program, with some restrictions.
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The administrative message is released every year making slight adjustments to which job fields are eligible for lateral moves based on the needs of the Marine Corps, Yvonne Carlock, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, told Marine Corps Times in a Wednesday email.
Lieutenant colonels and majors will require “appropriate” experience in the job field they are attempting to transfer into, or require an exception screened by headquarters Marine Corps.
Officers who have not been career designated are not eligible for lateral moves, “unless they are scheduled to screen for career designation within six months of application,” the administrative message said.
“Eligible officer job fields are chosen based on current and/or projected inventory vs. current and future requirements for those job fields,” Carlock said.
“At this time, we do not have a surplus of officers,” Carlock said, noting that the purpose of the message is to “enable force shaping methods to ensure we have the personnel to meet force requirements.”
Officers looking to lateral move either to or from job fields that were not mentioned in the administrative message will have their applications considered on a case-by-case basis.
“Exceptions will not be favorably considered unless the Marine is found exceptionally qualified,” the MARADMIN reads. “For example, a Marine holding PMOS 0602 with qualified education and/or experience may apply for lateral entry into PMOS 1702 with an exception to policy request.”
If a lateral move request is accepted, the Marine is required to spend at least 36 months in the Corps after officially being awarded the new military occupational specialty, with the exception of those transferring into the cyberspace warfare officer field.
Those officers will incur a 72 month service obligation after they graduate from the schoolhouse and earn the new MOS.
Though it is not mentioned in the message, the Marine Corps is still considering applications from female Marine officers who are attempting to lateral move into the 0302 infantry officer MOS, if they commissioned before that job field was open to them.
“Due consideration has been given to females who continued to request lateral move to 0302 beyond the deadline of the MARADMIN, and are managed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with inventory requirements and talent management,” Carlock said in the email.
