Army Offers new Incentives to Officers
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
The percentage of young
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
"The real issue here is
the third tour," Scales says. He predicts an increased loss of young
officers as the conflicts in
Patterson says the new
initiatives were developed from surveying
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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