Honor, Courage, and Varying Forms of Commitment: A Quantitative Study into the Career Affiliation Decisions of United States Marine Corps Active Reserve Officers

Abstract

The Active Reserve Program of the United States Marine Corps has three hundred unrestricted officers who manage the Marine Corps’ strategic reserve. These officers are responsible for the mastery of reserve policy and mobilization. The mobilization of reservists in support of combat operations abroad over the past twenty years makes an understanding of their career decisions imperative. Small programs are sensitive to turnover from separation or retirement. Current military literature has a deficit in studies surrounding the career decisions of Active Reserve officers. Previous studies on military manpower and transitions into, between components, and out of service are plentiful, but have only included active component or reserve officers. This study uses Gottschalck’s (2004) framework of personnel transitioning into, between, and out of employment and Selden and Moynihan’s (2000) framework as transition occurring through the visage of individual, organizational, or economic variables to define the variables that influence the propensities of Active Reserve officers to either separate or retire from service. This dissertation found larger families, more deployments, and higher national unemployment lessened the propensities of officers to separate from the Active Reserves and found being a male and a higher national unemployment rate lessened the likelihood officers would retire from the Active Reserve program earlier than expected. These results further inform literature about the importance of gender, family size, and unemployment impacting retention and may help guide the Marine Corps towards better policies to maintain key personnel.