COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Stop-Loss
Army Offers New Incentives to Officers
USA Today
November 7, 2005
WASHINGTON
- The Army is offering a series of new incentives to young officers to
stem a rising exodus in the past two years of West Point and ROTC
scholarship grads.
The number of lieutenants and captains leaving had dropped after the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But it has increased almost to
pre-9/11 levels because of mounting concerns about repeat tours of duty
in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military analysts such as Bob
Scales, a retired Army major general and former commandant of the Army
War College.
The percentage of young West Point graduates leaving the Army rose from
6.5% in 2003 to 10.7% in fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30. That
compares with 11.6% who left in 2000.
The number of scholarship ROTC graduates who left rose from 5.1% in 2003 to 9.3% in 2005. In 2000, 10.6% left.
Most of the young officers who leave exit as soon as their minimum
commitment is up; a minority leave because of injuries or other reasons.
The Army says the number of officers choosing to stay is adequate for
now, but officials are taking steps to make sure the Army has enough
officers for a service branch that is expanding by 30,000 troops while
fighting two prolonged wars.
"We're not going to wait for the loss rates to go up. We need to find
ways to retain our best and brightest," says Col. Mark Patterson,
manager of officer policy for the Army.
Among the new incentives:
*The Army will offer free graduate school soon to an additional 200
young officers now serving, and to 600 future officers beginning in
2010 if they agree to stay past their initial hitches. The Army now
pays for about 500 officers to attend graduate school each year.
*Some young officers will be able to choose where they will be assigned
and what job they will have if they agree to remain three years beyond
their first commitment. Currently, prospective Army officers can
request what job they want and where they will be assigned, but there
are no guarantees they will get their first choice.
*The Army will ask Congress to approve cash bonuses for officers who
stay past their initial stint. The program would be similar to
retention bonuses now offered to enlisted troops in hard-to-fill jobs.
*The Army is cutting the time it takes to get promoted to captain and
major. Promotion to captain will drop from 42 to 38 months; for major
from just less than 11 years to 10 years.
The Marine Corps has not experienced similar officer losses but will
monitor the situation, says Capt. Teresa Ovalle, a Marine Corps
spokeswoman.
Scales, the former Army War College commandant, says the initiatives
are well timed for young officers, who face repeated trips to combat
zones.
"The real issue here is the third tour," Scales says. He predicts an
increased loss of young officers as the conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan stretch on.
Patterson says the new initiatives were developed from surveying West
Point cadets and college students headed into the Army under the ROTC
program. When asked which were likely to persuade them to stay longer,
they said graduate school, choice of job and choice of where to live.
The Army also is suffering a severe shortfall in new recruits, but that
is being offset in part by better-than-average retention rates of those
who have already enlisted.
The potential officer shortage is also caused by an expansion of combat
units that requires more lieutenants, captains and majors. In addition,
the Army cut the size of incoming officer classes in the 1990s as part
of a post-Cold War downsizing. Midcareer officers from those classes
are not sufficient to fill the vacancies the Army has at the rank of
major.
During the downsizing years, the Army brought in about 2,000 fewer
officers than it now needs as senior captains and majors, Patterson
says. It hopes to raise its retention rates to make up for the
shortfall.
The Army also hopes to recruit up to 300 young officers set to leave
the Air Force because of downsizing in that service, Patterson says.
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