Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is concerned enough about strengthening the lethality of U.S. Forces that he broke with tradition last month to impose a first-ever “universal retention policy” across the four service branches. For decades the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force have been responsible for retention rules that dictate whether individuals get to stay in, and for how long, based on needs of service branches including the Marine Corps. For more details, see this Military Advantage post.