Marine Corps Deployment Tempo and Retention in FY '05

Despite high deployment tempo in FY05, the Marine Corps successfully met its FY05 enlisted reenlistment goals and the retention rate for officers was even higher than predicted. But as the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) continues, there is concern as to how increasing deployment time (DEPTEMPO) will affect Marines’ continuation in the Corps. This study statistically analyzes this issue. We find that high DEPTEMPO has had no negative effect on the continuation of career Marines and commissioned officers to date. In fact, we find that—for both groups—high deployment tempo and deployments to crisis areas increase their retention rates. Where DEPTEMPO has had an effect, however, is on the reenlistment of first-term Marines, particularly those without dependents, and non-deployers. Heavy DEPTEMPO more deterred Marines without dependents from reenlistment than Marines with dependents, and those with dependents averaged more deployed days. Non-deployers also had very low reenlistment rates. Unlike in FY04, however, we find that reenlistment probabilities turned up for very heavily deployed first-term Marines in FY05.