Is it possible for non-essential USMC personnel to get their jump wings?

Several years ago it was. The USMC gets "class seats" at the Division Level which they farm down to Regiments/BNs. We don't use all of them. Most of the time they will go to some "hard charger" as a reward/incentive. The trick is talking to your local training NCO (inside Ops S3) and finding out if there are any class seats and how you go about getting one.

On a Reserve side, I'm not even sure how you would go about it since they would be Active Duty orders for Training, which is unit/training funds making it more challenging.

Back in my day it was All about RECON. But I was awarded my Silver Star and the one star that gave it to me noticed I was going to Marine Barracks at Rota. He said the most Beautiful thing on a set of "Class A's " is wings and asked if I would be interested in going to jump school. Sure! I'm home on leave get my orders and bingo, made my quals at Benning and my additions with the Spanish in Spain with some Green Beret that trained Spanish forces.

Had my slot to jump school "stolen" by the Bn XO. The Bn SgtMaj explained that I served a useful purpose, whereas the XO was just breathing our oxygen. The SgtMaj assured me that if the Marine Corps needed me to jump from an airplane, there was plenty of time for training on the flight to the drop zone.

I too got qualified via a 'guest jumper' slot through the 2d MarDiv G3. I happened to be working in the G3 shop at the time and for some unknown reason ended up with orders to Benning. I did not ask how that came to be, but went hoping and praying I would not 'crash & burn in the LZ'. I never held a jump qualified billet and only made 4 guest jumps after the 5 at Benning before I landed in the trees at Camp Lejeune and that was the end of my jumping career. In retrospect it was an honor to attend.

Yes, it is. When I was going through HAWK Missile training in '96 they offered the instructors in my MOS school a chance to go. They had one slot available. That being said, you have to actively hunt it down, fight off a rabid pack of 2nd Lts, beat your PLT SGT over the head with a shovel, and manually stimulate your company commander to get the slot.

Yes. Your unit has to have a billet for the qual. Most aviation units have a billet for a jump qual'd parachute rigger to work out of aviation life support. I noticed this on duty one night while perusing the TO&E. The next day, I applied for the school and was approved to attend. Unfortunately, we got a jump qual'd gunny in flight equipment before my class seat was scheduled. So yes, it can be done.

Possible? Anything and everything is possible. The real question is the number of seats available to your service and how hard you are willing to fight to get one of those seats.

When I was at 3/11 many of our Radio Operators could get jump school. Any Marine could request it but some MOS have preference. Hope you have good luck!

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad or Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS may have an answer for you.

There's non-essential Marines?