This is from a Jan 2010 speech, in which he qoutes about 45,000 total

GENERAL GEORGE TRAUTMAN: Well, good afternoon everyone. I’m a Marine and I
work in the Pentagon. I don’t usually get to spend my afternoons with as many
thoughtful people as who are gathered here this afternoon. So, Dr. Perry, General
Schwartz, thanks very much for having me today.
You know, compared to the Air Force, the Navy and the Army, the Marine Corps is a
relatively small organization. We have grown over the past two and a half years. We
were 175,000 strong two and a half years ago. We had a plan that we would grow to
202,000 in five years. And we—I don't know where we find such great men and women
but the retention and the recruiting pace that we were able to get at, we are at 203,000
today. So now our struggle is to stop and get back to 202K in just two and a half years.
Of the 202,000 about 45,000 of those men and women in the Marine Corps serve in
Marine Aviation. We operate tactical aircraft numbering about 1,150. Seven hundred of
those aircraft are rotary wind or tilt rotor and about 450 are fixed wing. About two-thirds
of the Marine Corps force serve in deploying units. So we are very much a young force
and we are very much a force that is operationally oriented.
About 66% of our officer corps are captains and below. And about 66% of our enlisted
force is corporal and below, that is E4 and below for those who aren’t familiar with our
rank structure. So it’s a young force and we deploy that force at a pretty rapid pace.
About 60% of our enlisted Marines have deployed to OEF or OIF and about 75% of our
officers have deployed to either OIF or OEF.
Now, just like the other services, the last eight years have been fairly stressful on the
United States Marine Corps. We would like to get to the point where we can put Marines
out in a deployed environment for about seven months, get them back for about 14
months. And we believe that we can sustain that force for as long as necessary.
Unfortunately, in Marine Aviation, we have some communities that have been on a pace
for the last few years that exceeds that. Some communities are out for seven months,
back for seven months. In many cases you can find individuals who have done that
three, four even five times. It is sort of astounding that people are able to sustain that
tempo in support of what our nation needs us to do. We’re pretty proud of them, though.
And one of the reasons we wanted to grow, however is that we do want to drop back a
little bit on the kinds of things that we are asking these young men and women to do.
Now, there is a golden opportunity staring us in the face here. I don't know if you know it
but we’re about to end, tomorrow, five-plus years of Marine forces in the Al Anbar
province in Iraq. We will have the turnover ceremony tomorrow. We have topped out at
about 29,000 Marines in Al Anbar over, in the past. And coming out of Al Anbar is a
pretty big deal for us. We’re fairly proud of the way we are coming out. It has been a
success story from our perspective that required us to apply lessons we learned in Haiti
in 1920 to bring us into a current scenario. It is things we learned in three-block war that
General Krulak put together in the nineties.
But it will be good for us to turn our attention to our persistent deployment requirements
and Afghanistan because it will give us a bit of a break from the stress that we’ve been
under. The Afghanistan force, the Marine Corps will double the size of the complement
in Afghanistan. We have already leaned in. We were the first forces to respond by plan
to the President’s call for a surge in Afghanistan.
Most of the Marine force is down in the Helmand province, a place where criminality and
drugs and Taliban birthplace collide. There hadn’t been much US presence down there
in the past. And over the past year about11,000 Marines have been down there and we
are going to increase that size to about 20,000 in the next few months.
We also have several obligations, just as you do for global persistent presence. In our
case, we deploy to Korea and Japan. But we also work with the Navy to keep Marine
expeditionary units afloat, head to tail, three west coast, three east coast and one out of
Japan. Currently down in Haiti we have two of those Marine expeditionary units serving.
They are trying to do their best to augment the wonderful effort that General McNabb
talked to you about with our Navy partners. We also have one in CENTCOM. We have
one in PACOM.
For those of you who don’t know a Marine expeditionary unit is about 2,200 Marines.
They go to sea, built around an infantry battalion. The aviation combat element
associated with that force, which may be of most interest to this audience, consists of
six AV8B Harriers, a cores of 10 V22s or CH46’s, an HMLA, a Marine Light Attack
Helicopter squadron detachment with Huey and Cobras, and a heavy lift squadron
detachment with CH53s. And that force has the potential to operate across the range of
military operations, well suited to contribute to an HADR event—such as Haiti today or
do some other smaller scale things around the globe as they have been called upon to
do time after time.
The Marine Corps is a light force. I mean we are essentially light infantry. One of our
mottos is that every Marine is a rifleman and we mean it. We really do. We are willing to
expend a lot of our forces to insure that there is seamless integration among all
elements of the Marine Air Ground Taskforce. We need to because we depend on our
aviation to provide the fire power and the maneuverability that that light force needs to
accomplish its mission and to minimize risk in the face of a determined enemy, when
and if we encounter someone who would do us harm.
It was interesting in the build up to last years’ Navy, correction, Air Force / Marine Corps
war fighter talks. As we did some analysis we found the Marine Corps was willing to, not
willing, we do put about 12 times the numbers of aviation personnel with our ground
combat element than the Air Force contributes to that same skill set. That doesn’t make
one service right or wrong but it does highlight the incredible importance that the Marine
Corps places on insuring seamless integration among our aviation force and our ground
force.
We’re also an expeditionary force. Everyone has to be expeditionary today. And I think
one of the beautiful things that has happened in the last 20 or so years is that all four
services in SOCOM are more expeditionary than they have ever been before. One of
the things that we try to do, though, is insure that we can take the Marine Corps to the
most austere environments imaginable. We consider expeditionary maybe on a tougher,
not tougher but a more austere scale than, perhaps, some of the other services do.
That is one reason we need a young force, men and women out there doing that kind of
work. It is really a young man’s game. And they love it and we exploit that capability to
our advantage. We are doing that in Helmand now, go down and scratch out a runway
and build it out of AM2 matting and start operating and let the quality of life things catch
up later. That is sort of the way that we chose to operate in. It tends to serve us well.
We are also a naval force. Our naval character is very important to us. We cherish our
operational relationship with the United States Navy both in the amphibious and the
carrier environments. We contribute aviation to the amphib world. We contribute our F-
18 Hornets to the carrier world. And our partnership leads to goodness for our nation.
We have a certain role to play in that regard. And we believe strongly in the power of
naval expeditionary presence in an increasing anti-axis world.
And so we see that domain, the maritime domain, as a domain that the United States
naval force can and should dominate. And we work very hard to make sure that we can
do that. We are building and procuring quite a few different new type model series in the
Marine Corps and during the Q and A we can burrow into any of those that you like.
I’m particularly proud to say with this audience, and happy to say how grateful I am for
the three type model series that we are working on together. The KC130J is really an
Air Force program that the Marine Corps has leveraged to our advantage. We’ve now
been able to get our aged legacy C-130s out of the active force, 40 –year old machines.
And we have a full, active force of KC130J’s. The Joint Strike Fighter – the Air Force is
really leading that program. Our part of it is the VSTOL variant of the Joint Strike
Fighter.
We are about to stand up our first Joint Strike Fighter squadron down in Eglin. They will
be part of the 33rd Fighter Wing, commanded by an incredibly capable colonel that you
all put down there to command that organization. The integration and the seamless
teamwork has been near perfect. And then, finally, the MV22—my partnership with
General Worcester(?) is making sure that, the CV22 and the MV22 can perform and do
the kinds of things, revolutionary things, really that no other platform in the history of
mankind has been able to do—has been sound. And I’m very grateful for all of that.
I will give you one other example of the kinds of machines that Marine aviation is
procuring, just as a means of maybe highlighting how we can be—we are a little bit
different. That would be the light attack helicopter airplanes that we are procuring. We’re
actually upgrading our UH1 series. It’s an airplane that is nothing like any Huey you
ever heard of. It’s a twin-engine T700, four bladed, very agile, very adept, very
sophisticated cockpit, very multi-mission capable. Performance on about par with the
UH60.
And so you might say, the UH60 is a great airplane. Why don’t you just buy that? That’s
a great question. I love the UH60, as I know many of you do. But the beauty of what
we’ve done with this program is that we are also building a replacement for our AH1
attack helicopters, called the AH1 Zulu, which is probably about a year down the road
still. But the two machines are 84% identical. So the benefit that we get while on board
ship, with regard to the kinds of peculiar support equipment, the kind of maintenance
equipment that we have to take, the kinds of training challenges that we have—the
seamless back and forth of both pilots and maintainers in both shipboard and in
expeditionary environment, makes that airplane perfectly suited for us.
And, again, you might say, “Why don’t you buy the Apache?” The Apache is a wonderful
airplane. We would love to have it. But, on the other hand, these two airplanes are the
right, two airplanes for us. And I think the fact that we are a light force, an expeditionary
force in austere conditions and a naval force, is kind of what drives us to think that way,
versus what maybe a more classically normal thought process might be in that regard.
I’m going to pause there. I don't know what your questions will be but I hope you will
have some. And I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.

Question for all members

ACCS, I believe the General was shy a thousand or two. Just my opinion. Don't believe he would tell the enemy exactly how many we have, and where they are. I would say its less than 50 thousand for sure. remember the grunts go TAD to the Wing all the time, as well. I feel they need 5-10 thousand more in the Wing. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.

The FY 2011 Aviation Plan shows a total strength of 41,418 aviation Marines as of June 2010. The breakdown is:
Unrestricted Officers
1,388 Fixed wing
2,279 Rotary/Tilt wing
377 Naval Flight Officers
1,094 Ground Aviation Officers
Total: 5,138

Restricted Officers
406 Warrant Officers
172 Limited Duty Officers
Total: 578

Enlisted
OF 59 (Electronic Maint) 1,765
OF 60 (Aircraft Maint) 5,326
OF 61 (Rotary-wing Maint) 6,804
OF 62 (Fixed-wing Maint) 4,321
OF 63 (Avionics OMA) 4,259
OF 64 (Avionics IMA) 2,942
OF 65 (Av Ordnance) 2,851
OF 66 (Av Supply) 2,360
OF 68 (Av Weather) 344
OF 70 (Airfield Services) 2,350
OF 72 (Air Control/Support) 1,952
OF 73 (Enlisted Flight Crew) 388
Total: 35,702

FY 2011 Aviation Plan

hma1369, that doesn't include the ones now graduating from Boot, and the ones right behind them, and others. Plus the ones staying in. That number is streatched thin as it is. I feel they need a good number more. Hate to see only 97 Flight Crew Flying around now. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.

i dont understand the new mos /of crap

one of my mos s was 6112, that was ch 46 mech/crewchief.somebody learn me ! 🙂

I don't understand.....

Lurch, I believe a few Mos's have changed a bit. I was a 6212 out of Jet school, as it was the J-65 engine. When I got to the F-8 Squadron, it went to a J-57 MOS, and Now after I had CER,(Complete engine Repair), in the Phillippiness at Cubi Pt., it changed again to the J-79 engine Mos. Now all my 214 says is a 6027-A/C MECH since I became a 46 Crew Chief. It dropped the rest of them. I'm probally wrong, but the 46 MOS now is a 6172. I worked on the J-54,57,65,79, and some on the T-58-8. Loved the work, but enjoyed the Crew Chief much more. I'll try to find the MOS list again, and get back to you when I can find it. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.

hma1369;30167 wrote: The FY 2011 Aviation Plan shows a total strength of 41,418 aviation Marines as of June 2010. The breakdown is:
Unrestricted Officers
1,388 Fixed wing
2,279 Rotary/Tilt wing
377 Naval Flight Officers
1,094 Ground Aviation Officers
Total: 5,138

Restricted Officers
406 Warrant Officers
172 Limited Duty Officers
Total: 578

Enlisted
OF 59 (Electronic Maint) 1,765
OF 60 (Aircraft Maint) 5,326
OF 61 (Rotary-wing Maint) 6,804
OF 62 (Fixed-wing Maint) 4,321
OF 63 (Avionics OMA) 4,259
OF 64 (Avionics IMA) 2,942
OF 65 (Av Ordnance) 2,851
OF 66 (Av Supply) 2,360
OF 68 (Av Weather) 344
OF 70 (Airfield Services) 2,350
OF 72 (Air Control/Support) 1,952
OF 73 (Enlisted Flight Crew) 388
Total: 35,702

Does this figure in the MWSS units also? I'm not sure what their MOS numbers are.

Answers to question!

Thanks gentlemen. All information is appreciated. If there is additional please don't hesitate to contribute to the present information.

Wild Snide;30186 wrote: Does this figure in the MWSS units also? I'm not sure what their MOS numbers are.

They fall under Airfield Services OF 70.

Mwss

hma1369, If they are considered Aviation, I believe they would be included. Airfields is Aviation. Semper Fi, and READY-APP.