CURRENT STATUS STATEMENT BY LIEUTENANT GENERAL DENNIS M. MCCARTHY UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE COMMANDER, MARINE FORCES RESERVE

The Marine Corps Reserve continues to make an extraordinary contribution at home and abroad, most evident now during this time of crisis. At the end of February, nearly 4,500 Marine Reserve personnel were activated in support of the Global War on Terrorism. From provisional security platoons manning the fence line at the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, to a reaction force ready to respond to terrorist attacks on American soil, the men and women of your Marine Corps Reserve are ready, willing and able to answer the call to duty. The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center had a direct and personal impact on the Marine Corps Reserve. Two heroic Marines, Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Garvey and Corporal Sean Tallon, both members of FDNY, made the ultimate sacrifice when the buildings collapsed during their desperate efforts to save others. The Secretary of the Navy awarded both Marines the Navy and Marine Corp Medal, posthumously, for their extraordinary heroism. Today we have 172,600 Marines in the Active Component and another 39,558 in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve (SMCR). This force can be expanded by drawing from the 60,000 Marines who serve in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). As an integral part of our Total Force, Reserve Marines augment and reinforce the Active Component by performing a variety of missions in wartime and in peacetime. The missions assigned to our Reserves in the Global War on Terrorism are a clear reflection that Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES) possesses capabilities across the full spectrum of military operations.

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