I MEF (Forward) career planners retain service

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Mayra Montes , I Marine Headquarters Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force Fwd career planner, reads Staff Sgt. Jhonnatan Chinchilla's re-enlistment warrant Aug. 27, 2010. The career planners of I MEF Fwd have re-enlisted 1005 Marines to date. Approximately 25 percent of all first-term Marines who have re-enlisted have done so under I MEF Fwd while deployed to Afghanistan.  

CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN

11.06.2010

Story by Sgt. Shawn Coolman  

Regional Command Southwest

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – The job of a career planner is neither glamorous nor envied, but is essential in the retention of qualified Marines.

Career planners of I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) reenlisted 1,005 of the 4,427 first-term Marines who raised their right hands all across the world for fiscal year 2011. Roughly 25 percent of all first-term Marines who re-enlisted have done so under I MEF (Fwd) while deployed to Afghanistan.

Gunnery Sgt. Jason Spangenberg, I MEF (Fwd) career planner staff non-commissioned officer-in-charge, has overseen all re-enlistments throughout the I MEF (Fwd) area of operation.

“A career planner is there for that battalion or squadron, for that unit, to ensure and [assist] those Marines that are eligible for reenlistment or extensions,” said Spangenberg, who lives in Murrieta, Calif. “Also, they’re there to help out the career Marines to continue on with their career and as a transition councilor for those Marines who get out.”

Beginning from the first step onto Afghanistan soil Spangenberg, and his team, began formulating a plan of how to be there for the Marines’ career needs and how to reach their re-enlistment requirement.

“We needed to come up with 1,000 first-term fiscal year 2011 Marines to reenlist, and to get to that goal was basically get out there and aggressively sell to those Marines who were eligible to reenlist at that time.”

“When I first stepped [into Afghanistan] the first thing was to set a base line of how many people we were going to retain for the fiscal year 2011 first term alignment plan,” said Spangenberg, 35. “The second was I wanted to have a retention assist visit, which we did in July, and have it where Marines could basically re-enlist on the spot and that really went well.”

Spangenberg equates his success to the career planners, SNCOICs and officers, who are to the left and right of the first-term Marines mentoring them on a daily basis.

“A lot of the career planners’ success has to do with the SNCOs and officers at the battalion and squadron levels,” said Spangenberg. “They are the ones down there knee cap to knee cap with the Marines, the ones on the patrols, and of course the battalion and squadron career planners.”

Spangenberg says that all the work the career planners and the Marine mentors do to educate the first-term Marines about furthering their Marine Corps career and seeing the Marines’ face when he or she reenlists is worth more than money. It’s the reason why he has been a career planner for the past nine years.

It takes more than strong leadership and a tax-free bonus to persuade a Marine to rededicate themselves to the Marine Corps while deployed to a combat zone.

Spangenberg maintains that it takes hero.

“Any Marine who joined after Sept. 11, 2001 knew the war was going on and they joined the Marine Corps and the military service, and the fact that you reenlist in a combat zone during a war [shows] they are really true heroes,” said Spangenberg. “There is no other way to put it.”

• Date Taken: 11.06.2010
• Date Posted: 11.07.2010 03:41
• Story ID: 59577
• Location: CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF