Top enlisted Marines push corpsmen pay equity

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Navy Hospital Corpsman Benjamin Thiel, left, assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, holds security while patrolling though a village outside of Bala Baluk's forward operating base in the Farah Province.


Top enlisted Marines push corpsmen pay equity
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 7:01:57 EDT

When sailors deploy with Marine units, they live in the same conditions, eat the same food and face the same dangers.

But when Marine units are extended in Iraq or Afghanistan, the sailors don’t always get the same bonus pay. That needs to change, the Corps’ top enlisted members say.

The Corps’ sergeants major community has recommended to Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway that the service investigate options for giving those sailors the same assignment incentive pay, or AIP.

“You’re talking about being fair,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Carlton Kent, the Corps’ senior enlisted adviser. “We always have to be fair in the Marine Corps.”

The recommendation came out of the Sergeants Major Symposium, an annual meeting of top enlisted Marines in which policy recommendations are debated. Six command master chiefs were allowed to participate in the symposium for the first time, following an invitation from Kent.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/08/navy_corpsmenpay_081808w/