Should I take a rank reduction to go back into active duty?

I Don't Know How is Done nowadays,, But When I got Back to Active Duty After a Break of 17 Months + Days Before my 18th Month Time Frame Before I had to take a Rank Reduction.. I just Wanted To Get Back After Spending two Years as a Draftee in 69-71.. a 18 Months Tour in Vietnam... Got Out as an E-5 July 1971... Came Back In as a "Buck Sergeant" E-5 The Rank I was when I ETS'ed ... .. So Ask the recruiter What's the Time frame when You'd Lose Rank?... At that time I was even Willing to come Back as an E-3.. But When The Recruiter Sergeant told me, We can Have You Back as an E-5 Same MOS,,, I Jumped to it .. (I) Said: " Where / When Do I sign on The Doted Line?... Stayed in for a Total of 22.5 Years and Retired as a MSG(E8) US ARMY.. Been Retired Since July , 31 1991.. Have Collected $615k + in Retirement Checks.. The Best Decision I've Made Everrrrr!.. Good Luck!

SSGT, you didn't provide how much time you had in service and what your MOS had been. You may have a specialty that is in high demand, or a talent that fits very well in the civilian world. Have you spoken with an Army National Guard or Army reserve recruter? Keep in mind that there is also an Air National Guard that might be able to use you and there are MOS' that can conver to an AFSC and you may not lose a step or pay grade. Being a weekend warrior may be the way to go and on weekdays, you may be employed by the same unit, you might just be a GS-5 on those days.

how much to you want to serve again, and are you patient? You ought to regain the rank fairly quickly [a year or so] as long as you aren't in an over-stuffed and low-priority MOS. You already know the pros and cons of serving.

I got medically retired, I would take a rank reduction to go back, if it was possible. I’ll even give a testicle.

LTC (Join to see) - While it may seem unbelievable, I'm not surprised at all that a very highly qualified E7, in any MOS, was effectively turned away by the USMC, even the USMCR.

The USMC is about ethos first, every Marine a rifleman from day one. THAT is every Marine's MOS until the day they retire or separate or die. By the time someone achieved E7 in another Service, it is simply assumed they are "institutionalized" in that Service...

If the SFC was offered E2, and didn't have to go through boot camp (at his probably advanced age compared to the average recruit), that should be counted as a win, because the USMC has internal boards to consider if "former" Marines who wish to return to the Service, or reservists who wish to transfer from the RC to the AC, or officers who are being pushed out for whatever reason ask to be reenlisted to an enlisted grade, etc.

This internal board process is notoriously difficult, even during build ups like that after 2009 when the USMC AC was trying to build up to 202,000, which is about 30,000 more Marines than the AC has today (thus, we built up, and then shed all that extra weight just as quickly as possible...). We did bring some officers and SNCOs from the RC to the AC, and quite a few younger Marines were allowed back "in," but I personally know of many otherwise well-qualified RC officers and SNCOs, or "former" officers and SNCOs, who were simply turned away: "Sorry, no room for you at the inn."

It was especially painful for the Service, because for every officer and SNCO brought "back" onto active duty with the AC, there was an expectation through either law or Service policy of a high likelihood of a career of service...perhaps 10 years or more. AND every one of them who was "readmitted" was taking away promotion quotas for the younger generation. And a major, or an E7, is worth a lot of promotion quotas "downstream" at the lower grades that feed up to their grade. We saw an entire generation of younger Marines get culled at what we call "Enlisted Control Points," forever E5 Sergeants and thus denied further service, or E6 lifers who might be allowed to serve to retirement but would be very unlikely to ever be promoted again. And the same for officers at the O3 and O4 promotion boards, and even more importantly, abysmal retention rates through the annual "augmentation board" that decides which LTs and Capts get to remain on active duty and which get culled out...

The USMC of course in the situation you described lost out on a highly qualified technician, perhaps the best there was at that time...but he was not a Marine, didn't share the ethos, had not completed USMC boot camp or the Crucible, and the highly insular and inscrutable Board that decides if officers or SNCOs of any Service, or even "former" or Reserve Marines, is worthy of "clogging up" a boatspace (permanently for an O4 or an E6 or above, because USMC Service policy was for them to serve out to 20 years of active duty) and denying promotions to perhaps dozens of younger Marines when an unforecasted accession (interservice transfer, or officer to enlisted, or RC to AC, or reappointment from a veteran status), decided to play it safe: recognize that he was a great technician, and would be allowed to set foot inside our beloved Corps...but he was an outsider and thus not worthy of wearing rockers or even Sgts stripes.

I have personally never heard of any interservice transfer of a senior NCO (E6 or up), who retained their rank. USMC policy is for all such transfers to start over as E2... Even many RC Marines who were augmented to AC status lost at least one stripe, sometimes two. Same for "former Marines" who were reenlisted.

Officers don't get interservice transferred and lose a grade (it's an officer thing under DOPMA and DoD regulations), but they can instead have their lineal standing altered so they lose as much as ALL their seniority in grade, and essentially have to start from scratch in their grade as a Marine officer.

I will admit that I have NEVER seen or heard of this being done in recent years (last 25+ years) where the incoming officer was OTHER than a pilot who was already flight qualified in an airframe that the USMC was desperately short of, or lawyers (which we are often short of, too). As a newly commissioned officer (O1), I was quite amazed at the USMC's 6 month Basic School for all new officers when we had at least one (my memory is little hazy now) O3 who was interservice transferred from the Navy to the USMC. He was a pilot, of course.

I don't remember how much seniority he had, or may have "lost" if his lineal standing was adjusted upon reappointment to the USMC, but I do remember that he was "allowed" to NOT go through our brutal OCS...he was deemed beyond that level of "screening and selection..." but he was still required to attend the same TBS for 6 months that all other incoming USMC officers had to attend, which itself is fairly difficult and is intensely focused on leadership and infantry tactics...the USMC way, not the USN way.

The mere fact he was allowed to keep his O3 grade, AND hadn't gone through OCS like the rest of us, did not endear him to us as butterbars who had done it the hard way. USMC ethos had damaged him from the very outset of his career...

Yep, we're hard headed, and lose out on talent because we want our own young talent to grow up to become old talent, even when our own reserves and former Marines want "back in...sorry, pal."

Cheers, WKB

LtCol William Bentley - thank you sir for the in-depth explanation. I'm very very impressed. I was talking to a retired marine sergeant major who was working at the Sheriff's Department range in Orange California and I have to the similar question and his answer was not as detailed as yours was. I guess the reason he was going to be an E2 is because he was a master gunner so you would have been perfect for armor but like you said he didn't have the Marine ethos he didn't go through The Crucible he didn't go through all of the initiation that a Marine grunt has to go through in boot camp. His Cadence calls would have sounded funny and it would have just been a square peg.

Stole my thunder there Major. I was given the cold shoulder by the recruiters about nine months after I got out and so I went into the reserves at my old rank and within 3 months the active duty recruiters called me up and offered me my old rank and a full reenlistment bonus. I was sorry to leave my new reserve unit but I felt it was the right move to go back active.

CPO Mark Robinson - I am glad it worked out for you chief!

SSG Encarnanion, I sent you an email on global with his last name since we were/are last name basis. Sorry that's all I could come up with right now. I don't want to go around emailing SFC's and potential 1sg's lol. But I'm sure you will. He was very helpful and approachable back then, I'm sure he's the same person now. Hope I was a little help.

Battles, basic or no basic has nothing to do with keeping rank. I work for USAREC coming up on six years now. SSG Encarnacion, look up Grade Determination in AR 601-210. The rules are clearly outlined there plus, if you go to your local recruiting center, they will have the latest copy of what is called "prior service business rules". They outline everything for current prior service accessions.

SFC , thank you for your response. Basic is a form of re-training I would assume. We all know there are regulations, special waivers and those nice gray areas. I’m not the subject matter expert but I know it was done. I’m not sure if he re trained in his MOS ,I can’t speak on that but from what he told us he had to repeat basic in order to keep his rank. My question would be” why would this SSG be repeating basic if it wasn’t some form of requirement?

It doesn’t work like that, a grade determination waiver is submitted and what comes back is what it is. It’s not like he can “bargain” with the recruiter or guidance counselor at MEPS.