Photo By Sgt. Zaid Dannsa | Sgt. Maj. James E. Booker, Marine Forces Reserve sergeant major, speaks during a post...... read more read more
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NEW ORLEANS - Sgt. Maj. James E. Booker replaced Sgt. Maj. Kim E. Davis on Sept. 9 as the new Marine Forces Reserve sergeant major. Recently, the Continental Marines staff sat down with Sgt. Maj. Booker and spoke with him about the direction and future of MarForRes.
Q: Could you tell us a little about your background?
A: My dad was in the Navy so I moved around a lot, but I grew up in northern Indiana, around Angola. I joined the Marine Corps January 1983 and enlisted as an infantryman. Later I became a first sergeant and decided to stay in. I’ve had several assignments since then, and now I’m here.
Q: Have you ever worked alongside Reserve Marines before?
A: Yes, when I was the first sergeant for Ordnance Company in Waco, Texas. Since then I’ve been in units augmented with Reserve Marines. When I was with 6th Marine Regiment, I had a Reserve infantry battalion, 2nd battalion, 23rd Marines, under me.
Q: Could you tell us a little about your operational experience?
A: When I was a staff sergeant I was a force recon platoon sergeant. I was also in Desert Storm, which was my first combat experience. I did a couple of Marine Expeditionary Unit deployments…went to Somalia and places over there. As a first sergeant I went to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I went back as a battalion sergeant major in 2004 with 2nd Bn., 4th Marines, which was a hell of a fight in Ramadi and Fallujah.
Q: What do you think are the unique challenges in leading Marines who are spread across 183 locations throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico?
A: Getting the word of Lt. Gen. Steven A. Hummer, the MarForRes commander, and the commandant from them exactly as they said it, to all of those sites. Responsibility of any enlisted Marine, particularly first sergeants and sergeant majors, is being directly hooked with the commander and getting his policies out there. Getting the word out without distortion between websites, emails, phone calls, speeches…that’s the challenge and there are a lot of ways and avenues to do it.
Q: What do you think are the strengths of MarForRes?
A: The depth of knowledge, the age and experience other than straight up military occupational specialty experience. For example, your average [Marine Reserve] corporal and sergeant are older than their active-duty counterparts, and they haven’t been raised in just the Marine Corps. They have Marine Corps knowledge, but it’s likely they have business or civilian education experience and the life experiences that come with it.
Q: What are some areas you would like to see MarForRes improve upon during your time as sergeant major?
A: The commandant wants to continue to train, equip and deploy Marines to Afghanistan so I will continue to support that, which is a challenge in itself. I would like to take lessons learned and apply them to the next couple years and continue to support the Afghanistan mission. We can’t take eyes off the fact that we need to continue to support the Marines and Sailors overseas.
Q: Do you have any specific goals or priorities for the enlisted Reserve Marines of MarForRes?
A: For (4th Marine) Division, I would like to work with Sgt. Maj. Hightower to make sure infantry battalions are properly informed of their missions for training purposes.
For (4th) MLG, they are augmenting forces to fight but are also restructuring at the same time.
I want to make sure we have good regimental sergeants major in those positions so these things can continue to function.
Also, when the Marine Corps takes an All Marine message, sometimes they don’t think of the Reserve component. I would like to get more involved to make sure policies are vetted through MarForRes and make sense for all Reserve Marines. I want to make sure if they haven’t asked for our input, we try to add our input and have an effect on policies that may have only been made for active-duty Marines.
Q: What message do you have for the Marines of MarForRes?
A: They need to study the commandant’s planning guidance. Know the commandant’s and the commander of MarForRes’ guidance and everything else will fall into place.
| Date Taken: | 09.12.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 09.12.2011 16:11 |
| Story ID: | 76905 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,178 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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