STATEMENT OF
STAFF SERGEANT BEN A. GRAINGER
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
BEFORE THE
HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS
ON
6 MARCH 1998
CONCERNING
READINESS AND PERSONNEL
Staff Sergeant Grainger is the Platoon Sergeant for Heavy-guns Platoon,
Weapons Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines. Staff Sergeant Grainger was born in
Fayetville, North Carolina on August 23, 1966. He graduated from Myrtle Beach High School
in Myrtle Beach South Carolina 1985. Enlisting in the Marine Corps in July of 1985, he
underwent recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island where he graduated
as a Meritorious Lance Corporal. He was subsequently assigned to infantry training at
Infantry Training School, Camp Pendleton, California.
In January 1996 he received orders to Marine Barracks, 8th & I Washington D.C. where
he served in Bravo Company as part of the Ceremonial Drill Unit until December 1997.
Upon completion of his tour at Marine Barracks he reported to TOW Company, 2nd Tank Bn,
where he served as a TOW Squad Leader and Section Leader. In October 1988 he was selected
as the City of Jacksonville Marine of the Month. He was promoted Meritoriously to Sergeant
in November 1988.
In January 1989 he was assigned to Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment
where he deployed to the Mediterranean for 6 months. While on deployment 2nd Battalion,
8th Marine Regiment was called on to do Contingency Operations off the coast of Lebanon.
For serving with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines during Contingency Operations he received the
Navy Unit Citation.
In November l989 he was assigned back to TOW Company, 2nd Tank Batlalion where he served
until July 1990.
In July 1990 he reported to Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment and
deployed in support of Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
In December of 1991 he reported to MCRD San Diego, where he attended Drill Instructor
School. From May 1992 to November 1994 he served as a Drill Instructor and Senior Drill
Instructor.
In December 1994 he was assigned to Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines at Camp
Pendleton, where he served as Combined Anti-Armor Team Section Leader and deployed to
Okinawa in May of 1995. He was promoted to Staff Sergeant in November of 1995. In 1996 he
became Platoon Sergeant for Heavy-Guns Platoon. In 1997 he again deployed to Okinawa this
time as 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. Staff Sergeant Grainger currently has orders
assigning him as the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor at Cornell University in May of
1998.
His personal decorations include the Combat Action Ribbon, The Navy and Marine Corps
Achievement Medal, Southwest Asia Medal with three stars, Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi
Arabia), and the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Emirate of Kuwait). Staff Sergeant Grainger is
married to the former Patricia West of Enfield, Connecticut and has two childrern, Ben and
Cody.
FORCE IN READINESS
These past few years I've seen some of the best gear coming to the individual Marine.
We've been getting the new gortex, boots, and equipment to take care of our Marines. The
advances in weaponry we are being equipped with is better than most countries we face
today. The planes have become more advanced in weaponry and precision gunnery, the ships
are adapted to carry more gear and to support you longer, and the tanks are better
equipped to handle the world's armor threats. It is imperative that we continue in this
direction taking care of the men who take care of us from those who would think otherwise
of peace and freedom.
However with all of our modernization and advances in technology it comes back to one
point. It takes that individual Marine to secure that ground. As all this gear and
weaponry has emerged, the number of Marines necessary to carry out the missions has
declined, not because it takes any less Marines, but because we have been forced to reduce
without thought for who might have to suffer to save a little money. It's the combat
Marine who suffers.
We have been forced to reduce the number of troops in the Marine Corps and still maintain
the combat effectiveness. To do this they have had to cut forces, jobs, and supporting
agencies in other areas of the Marine Corps and still try to maintain the unit integrity
of the combat unit. This however has not been able to happen. The personnel to man these
jobs have been cut but, the jobs are still having to be manned.
When you look at our strengths you see that we are manned at 90% or better because it says
so on paper. What you don't see is the number of Fleet Assistance Program (FAP) and Camp
Assistance Program(CAP) Marines we have to give up to outside agencies. To help fill the
voids the Marine Corps is slowly amassing we have to pull bodies from the combat units to
fill a FAP or CAP requirement. These bodies can be doing anything from Environmental
Supervisor to Military Police to a Gym attendant. At anytime I will give up a minimum of
five Marines to do this for a year. That is five Marines that now cannot train with their
troops or maintain their proficiency at their profession. This is not only low ranking
troops it is also our leadership Marines. My Battalion alone has given up 59 Marines to
work for outside agencies to help fill in these gaps (Attachment 1). Our Regiment has
given up 131, that is almost equivalent to an entire rifle company. On top of this we can
also plan on giving up two to four more Marines per platoon to work in one of the internal
agencies that are required to make a Battalion run smoothly.
We lose these Marines almost the entire training time we are back in the states, getting
them back only right before we deploy. Now we are taking these Marines right into a
deployment after being out of their specific training field.
My last deployment in Okinawa was with a Marine Expeditionary Unit more than capable of
carrying out any mission asked to do. But at what cost. As soon as I landed we had to give
up our Marines again to help run the base. I didn't see them again until right before we
returned 6 months later. As soon as we went to sea we had to give up Marines to work for
the ship because they couldn't man all their jobs.
My lack of adequate numbers of Marines caused me to have to work my Marines above and
beyond the regular number of hours any man should be working. We have to maintain not only
our gear, but also all of the gear that we can't man to keep it at a constant state of
readiness. Our gear goes where we go, and we cannot tolerate for one piece not to be ready
when the fight begins.
As Marines go out to train we must still carry out the same mission that they require of
us, we have to just do it with less bodies and still strive to do it better. Having to
short gun crews to get more guns up weakens us but we cover those sectors. We over task
our Marines to cover all the contingencies and they do it without hesitation. But as a
leader I also hope they don't take any more Marines and demand that we to still perform at
the same levels.
We man our weapons and equipment now but with probably two thirds the men we need and
still we don't hesitate when given a mission. Unfortunately, we cannot continue to do this
great job with so little if you take any more Marines away from us. We must continue with
our current manning levels at a minimum, if not raise them, so that we can continue to
maintain our current level of readiness. The current demand for our Marines is at an all
time high not only by the Marine Corps but by the nation. If we continue to think we can
just cut those Marines from our forces and all will be well, one day we will sadly be
mistaken. As the nation pulls out those Marines with its cuts the rest of us have to
continue holding the peace with not only the demands of our nation but of the world.
WELFARE OF OUR MARINES AND THEIR FAMILIES
The young Marines coming in today are no doubt of the finest quality. The levels of
education and other requirements that are required to enter the Marine Corps today ensure
this. I interact daily with these Marines as I am at the level, being a platoon sergeant,
that has to daily counsel these Marines about their future. Some of the main issues facing
these Marines as they talk to me is our the quality of life issues. Many strides have been
in made bettering the quality of life today, but we have to continue. With Marines
deploying more often today they are concerned with well being of their families. The
following were some of the Major topics my Marines come to me about.
1. Adequate day care facilities for their children. When a Marine deploys he leaves his
wife home alone with the children. A Marine loses money every time he is deployed when in
actuality he may incur more living cost by having to maintain two separate living
quarters. Sometimes a wife will have to work to help supplement the loss of income the
Marine has incurred for deploying. This causes a wife to have to place any children in a
day care facility which is hopefully near by and safe. And in turn, this gives the family
another bill to contend with.
We need to continue to build and improve facilities to support the children of our
Marines.
2. With the way the Marines are moving and deploying so often, they need more facilities
that help them with relocation assistance and community support centers. They need help
not only to help when a new family comes in, but to also support the family member when
one parent is deployed. One of the key players in helping the Marine and his family is the
Family Service Center. The Family Service Center is a step in the right direction but even
it is having problems keeping up with the demands of the Marines. My Marines, due to the
hectic schedule, cannot always get there during the normal working hours of most
businesses, which results in the centers being closed when they get there. Also the
Marines have to drive to offices that may be pretty far away. When the Marine is deployed
and the wife has a problem, they don't know how to utilize these facilities or they are
not accessible to them. When discussing this with the family service representative to try
to help my Marines I discovered that they want to stay open longer hours for the Marines
and their families, but that they don't have the money to acquire more staff. They have a
shortage of material to get out to the families and a shortage of offices for the Marines
families to utilize. The funding to open more offices to Marines and material to support
them with is not there. The Navy Relief Society works strictly on donations to help our
Marines and a staff of mostly volunteers to help our Marines. Last year Navy Relief gave
$2 million in grants and loans in helping troubled families. The funding we don't give to
these organizations doesn't hurt the organization that is trying to do the job as much as
the Marines and families who need the services. We need to seriously look at supplementing
monies to these types of organizations that work strictly on volunteers and donations and
funding the other ones adequately enough to continue to provide vital help to our Marines
and family's.
WEAPONS REPLACEMENT
The Marine Corps funding for the replacement and modernization of weapons is inadequate
for the amount of weapons that need to be replaced and updated. The Marine Corps already
spreads the thin budget into the priorities it deems are the most urgent which means there
just is not enough money to go around fast enough to replace all the weapons that need to
be replaced. Some of my .50 caliber machine-guns were made in the 1940's. As they finally
wear out and because they have just worn down too much we turn them in. If they decide we
can no longer repair it they say it has to be completely replaced. We now have to face the
fact that we will not get a replacement weapon for a year to a year and a half. This is
entirely too long to have to wait to replace a weapon vital to an infantry battalion or to
expect a gun crew to be without a weapon.
CONCLUSION
In closing, we will continue to excel as Marines in every mission we are tasked with, for
we are the Marine Corps. We will do more with less as demanded to by the American people
because that is our nature. But the demands you ask of us do not go without repercussion
from the Marines who are committed to succeed. We need to continue to improve taking care
of our Marines and families by adding more adequate medical care, child care, housing and
providing adequate services and facilities to help in their time of need. A Marine who
knows his family is being taken care of will sacrifice more of himself to do what has to
be done. And we must ensure that a Marine has the tools with which to carry out his job by
continuing to provide him with the best of personal gear, the modernization of supporting
equipment (tanks, aircraft, engineering equipment,etc), and providing enough funding to
replace more older weapons at a faster rate.
FAP RANK NAME LINE # BILLET
H GYSGT ROBINSON 113 LOGISTICS CHIEF
H CPL DORSEY 0584L BLOCK NCO
H CPL JAMES 2162 FISCAL CLERK
H LCPL CHRISTOPHER 1721 MT OPERATOR
H LCPL MALONE 0094 FOOD SERVICE SP
H PFC HALL 0094 MT OPERATOR
W SGT ISAACS 147 NCOIC MACHINEGUN
W CPL RUIZ 0147K MILITARY POLICE
W CPL NORMAN 150 MACHINEGUN INSTR
W CPL KLINE 0584K BLOCK NCO
W CPL ARNOLD 139 DRAGON INSTR
W LCPL D'ABREU 113A MORTAR INSTN
W LCPL ERICKSON 133 MORTAR INSTR
W LCPL GARZA 0575B RANGE MAINT MAN
W SGT PEREZ 175 MOTORCYCLE INSTR
A CPL DIGRIGOLI 0147L MILITARY POLICE
A LCPL LEAVAI 121 MT OPERATOR
A CPL LEWIS 159 SNIPER ~STR
A CPL NORMAN 0583C TOWER NCO
A LCPL SANCHEZ 046 MARKSMANSHIP COACH
B LCPB BROWNING 0365A MT OPERATOR
B CPL HENN 0149D MILITARY POLICE
B LCPL MEDINA 1704A MT OPERATOR
B SGT PERRY 0584 BLOCK NCO
B LCPL ZAMORA 014 GUARD MAIL DRIVER
C SSGT CONRAN 2509A INSTRUCTOR
C LCPL DELATORRE 0397 RECREATIONAL ASST
C CPL STRUTTON 142 TACTICS INSTR
C LCPL WEDDELL 047 MARKSMANSHIP COACH
C ISTLT PHILDIUS 107 ASST DIR DIV SCHOOL
C CPL BRUEGGE 0593A RANGE SAFTEY
C SSGT ELLIOT II 2508A INSTRUCTOR
C LCPL WIDNER 0011H CONSOLE OPERATOR
C LCPL SPENCER 0151B MILITARY POLICE
H SSGT YODER 0001 MAINT SNCOIC
H LCPL WHITE 0035 CMCC CLERK
H CPL PEAVEY 0026 GYM ATTENDANT
W SGT MCKEE 0017 ENVIRO SUPERVISOR
W CPL HALE 0037A MAIL CLERK
A LCPL GOSLAR 0024 GYM ATTEND'4NT
A LCPL HOMAN 0037 DRIVER/MESSENGER
A LCP!. KITSEMBLE 0015 MALNT REPAIRMAN
A LCPL MYERS 0025 GYM ATTENDANT
A LCPL POST 0046 LIFE GUARD
A LCPL RHODENIZER 0012 MAINT REPAIR MAN
A CPL WHITE 0003 GROUND MAINT NCC
A CPL LOFFER 0045 NCOIC TRNG TANK
B CPL THOMLISON 0005 TOOL NCO
B LCPL CASTANEDA 0010 MAINT REPAIR MAN
B LCPL FARR 0027 GYM ATTENDANT
B LCPL NOBLE 0029 GYM ATTENDANT
B CPL BAKER 0043 RANGE/FACT NCO
B CPL BARRETTE 0048 TRNG TANK INSTR
FAP RANK NAME LINE # BILLET
B CPL ROMERORAMIREZ 0011 CAMP SVCS CLERK
B CPL WOLFE 0028 GYM ATTENDANT
C LCPL WHITMORE 0031 GYM ATTENDANT
C LCPL GREEN 0018 POL HAZMAT HANDL
C LCPL ROBBINS 0044 ISMT NCO
C CPL SHORE 0030 GYM ATTENDANT
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