COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: General
More enlisted personnel exit military; drugs, weight blamed
Martha Mendoza, ASSOCIATED PRESS,San Diego Union-Tribune
January 16, 2006
Drug
use, weight problems and parenthood have been taking their toll on the
military since the war on terrorism began in earnest in 2002, according
to newly released Pentagon data.
Documents released to the Associated Press under the Freedom of
Information Act indicate the number of enlisted personnel leaving the
military each year has increased from 8.7 percent in 2002 to 10.5
percent last year.
Enlisted losses – including people whose enlistments
had expired – increased from 118,206 in 2002 to
137,465 last year, while officer losses have increased from 5,619 in
2002 to more than 7,500 last year.
The subset of those leaving before their term was up, for reasons
ranging from disability to drug abuse, increased from 58,214 in 2002 to
60,406 last year among enlisted personnel and from 1,011 in 2002 to
1,280 for officers.
"Service members leave the military for a variety of reasons," said
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke. "We appreciate their
service and respect their reasons for leaving the service."
Krenke said the military met and in some cases exceeded its retention goals this year.
None of the 1.4 million soldiers, sailors and Marines on active duty
areallowed to quit, but they can be kicked out or receive special
discharge.
The reasons for leaving the service differ in each branch, though
general misconduct – a term which can mean anything
from petty theft to brawling with colleagues – has
consistently been the most common explanation.
Pentagon data show that service losses last year are still below
overall levels in the mid-1990s, when the Defense Department struggled
with retention and recruiting.
But in recent years, some categories reached 10-year highs. Pregnancy
and parenthood, for example, have steadily increased as a reason for
personnel losses, especially in the Army, where last year 4,238
soldiers were discharged from the Army for pregnancy and parenthood, up
from 2,862 in 2002. This reflects what military officials say is a baby
boom, especially at bases with high deployments.
Pregnancy used to mean an automatic discharge; these days, it's an
option but not a requirement. Even so, increased numbers of service
members are asking to get out because they have children.
"These days, military parents are finding it very complicated to serve,
because a lot of people are being deployed, many are being deployed
multiple times, and these deployments have proved to be unpredictable
in length and frequency," said Shelley M. MacDermid, director of the
Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University in West
Lafayette, Ind.
Drug use is also an increasing reason soldiers are being discharged
from the Army, up 40 percent since 2002; last year 1,986 soldiers were
kicked out of the Army for using for using marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy
and other illegal drugs. By contrast, soldiers thrown out for alcohol
dropped from 251 in 2002 to 164 last year.
Rod Powers, an author and a retired Air Force sergeant, said the drug
use discharges probably reflect more sophisticated drug testing
policies.
"I hear from a lot of young recruits thinking they can beat a urinalysis, but I tell them it's not so easy," he said.
Another issue that is prompting increased discharges is a failure to
meet weight standards. The Army, which has the most stringent weight
standards of all the military branches, kicked out more than 3,285
soldiers last year because they were too heavy.
Beth Asch, who tracks armed forces staffing at the RAND Corp., a
nonpartisan research group, said the Army's weight problems may have
been there all along.
"The big attrition due to weight is the Army trying to make its
recruiting mission by waiving the weight standards," she said. "The
problem with doing that is those people tend to drop out."
The Marines and Air Force, by contrast, dropped standard weight tables
and have used body fat measurements instead. They have seen sharp
declines in the numbers of troops being released because of weight
problems.
Higher-profile discharges – such as conscientious
objection and homosexuality – represent a small
fraction of the total losses.
About 40 uniformed personnel received honorable discharges as
conscientious objectors last year. The Pentagon did not release 2005
numbers of those released for "homosexual conduct," but in 2004, just
653 people were discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
That was down from a 10-year high in 2001 of 1,273.
Service members released because of pregnancy or because they are
disabled almost always receive honorable discharges, but those who are
kicked out for drug use or weight problems often end up with the black
mark of a dishonorable or less than honorable discharge on their record.
Chris Lopez, a San Diego-based recruiter who helps place retiring
military personnel in civilian jobs for the Lucas Group firm, said a
negative discharge "is going to make it very difficult for some people
to find work."
But he said honorable discharges for things prompted by disability or dependency do not hinder career placement.
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of