The new approach is a result of recruiting successes, General Milstead said. Thanks in part to the weak economy, the corps is ahead of its recruiting goals not only for this year but for the next three as well. And so the high command has concluded that it can be pickier about new recruits.

“We’re going to toss a challenge,” General Milstead said. “And if you rise to the challenge, we’ll make you only one promise: we’ll make you a United States Marine. That resonates to young men and women.”

Image Gone is the stately precision drill team attired in dress blues. Credit... The United States Marines

The corps is not the only service meeting its goals. As is typical when job markets are weak, all the services have been meeting or exceeding their targets, including the Army, which struggled just a few years ago when the economy was strong and the Iraq war was sending home large numbers of casualties.

General Milstead said that in 2008, the corps had its most bountiful recruiting year since 1984, bringing in about 42,000 new Marines. He also noted that the quality of recruits was higher: nearly 99 percent this year are high school graduates, up from 95 percent in 2007.