Army retention rate surpasses goal by 15%

gwayneco · Apr 10, 2006

Suck it haters.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-09-army-re-enlistments_x.htm

Army surpassing year's retention goal by 15%
Posted 4/9/2006 10:57 PM
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Two of every three eligible soldiers continue to re-enlist, putting the Army, which has endured most of the fighting in Iraq, ahead of its annual goal.
The Army was 15% ahead of its re-enlistment goal of 34,668 for the first six months of fiscal year 2006, which ended March 31. More than 39,900 soldiers had re-enlisted, according to figures scheduled to be released today by the Army.

Strong retention has helped the Army offset recruiting that has failed to meet its targets as the war in Iraq has made it harder to attract new soldiers. The Army fell 8% short of its goal of recruiting 80,000 soldiers in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, although it is exceeding its goal this year. Army recruiting figures for the first half of the year are to be released today.

The Army has met or exceeded its goals for retention for the past five years, records show. It was 8% over its goal for 2005, and 7% ahead of its targets for 2004. The number of re-enlistments has exceeded the Army's goal by a larger margin each year since 2001.

Soldiers like the Army, "and the war is not causing people to leave," says Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman. Through March, 2,325 U.S. troops had been killed in Iraq; 1,593 were Army soldiers.

The Pentagon announced in March that each of the armed forces was on track to meet its retention goal for the year.

Pay and re-enlistment bonuses help, Hilferty says. Bonuses range from nothing to $150,000 for a handful of special operations commandos. The average re-enlistment bonus is $6,000, Hilferty says.

"It's not just pay," Hilferty says. "Our people want to be part of something greater than themselves, and they're willing to put up with a lot."

Charles Henning, a national defense analyst with the Congressional Research Service, says robust re-enlistment allows the Army to maintain its strength.

"Retention has been a very positive thing for the Army," Henning says. "That's an indicator of very high morale, high esprit de corps. It's a very solid indicator that soldiers are gratified, or they'd vote with their feet."

In the longer term, the trend could create an older, more expensive-to-maintain Army, according to military sociologist Charles Moskos, an emeritus professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

The Army needs to balance career soldiers with younger troops who serve for just a few years, Moskos says.

"It can be financially astounding in terms of retirement and health benefits," Moskos says. "You need more citizen soldiers rather than professionals."

The Army accounts for age when it accepts soldiers for re-enlistment, Hilferty says. While the Army has fewer privates and more specialists than in the past, he says, the age structure is balanced. "We're aware of it, and we're considering it."
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RocketMan Tex · Apr 10, 2006

gwayneco said:

Suck it haters.
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Who took a dump in your bowl of Wheaties this morning, gwayneco?

FranchiseBlade · Apr 10, 2006

At last! Some news to finally put those army retention goal haters in their place.

Those legions of people who can't stand for the army to reach their retention goals have really been shown up with this news.

SamFisher · Apr 10, 2006

******* it, I just lost my office Army retention rate goal pool.

gwayneco · Apr 10, 2006

RocketMan Tex said:

Who took a dump in your bowl of Wheaties this morning, gwayneco?
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If you must know, it was one-time Rocket Purvis Short.

GladiatoRowdy · Apr 10, 2006

gwayneco said:

Suck it haters.
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What a great example of constructive dialogue and meaningful discourse...

jo mama · Apr 10, 2006

gwayneco said:

Suck it haters.
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george w. bush hates the troops

bigtexxx · Apr 10, 2006

gwayneco - thanks for posting this. I'm happy to hear that the Army is meeting their goals.

RocketMan Tex · Apr 10, 2006

gwayneco said:

If you must know, it was one-time Rocket Purvis Short.
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Well, at least it was a "short stack"...

rimrocker · Apr 10, 2006

A little complexity added in this story...

Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate
By THOM SHANKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/w...06277-B8QDSPLGGpke0/TKgrCnpw&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, April 9 — Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation.

It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates.

Mirroring the problem among West Pointers, graduates of reserve officer training programs at universities are also increasingly leaving the service at the end of the four-year stint in uniform that follows their commissioning.

To entice more to stay, the Army is offering new incentives this year, including a promise of graduate school on Army time and at government expense to newly commissioned officers who agree to stay in uniform for three extra years. Other enticements include the choice of an Army job or a pick of a desirable location for a home post.

The incentives resulted in additional three-year commitments from about one-third of all new officers entering active duty in 2006, a number so large that it surprised even the senior officers in charge of the program. But the service's difficulty in retaining current captains has generals worriedly discussing among themselves whether the Army will have the widest choice possible for its next generation of leaders.

The program was begun this year to counter pressures on junior officers to leave active duty, including the draw of high-paying jobs in the private sector; the desires of a spouse for a calmer civilian quality of life at a time when the officers can be expected to be starting their families; and, for the past two years, the concerns over repeated tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Army has had a far more difficult time in its recruiting than the other services because the ground forces are carrying the heaviest burden of deployments — and injuries and deaths — in the war.

One member of the West Point class of 2000 who left active duty last year is Stephen Kuo, who took a job with a medical equipment company in Florida. Mr. Kuo said his decision was based on "quality of life." He is now recruiting classmates for his company.

"With the rotation of one year overseas, then another year or so back at home, then another overseas rotation — it does take a toll on you," said Mr. Kuo, who served a year in combat in northern Iraq. "Plus, I was not enjoying the staff jobs — desk jobs — I was looking at for the next 8 to 10 years. Furthermore, the private sector had many lucrative offers."

But the chance at a free master's degree persuaded Brandon J. Archuleta, a West Point senior, to sign up for an extra three years in uniform.

"Education is extremely important to me, and I know I want a master's degree at the very least," Cadet Archuleta said. "The Army has a wonderful relationship with some of the top-tier graduate schools, especially in the Ivy League. I want to attend a school of that caliber."

In 2001, but before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 9.3 percent of the Army's young officers left active duty at their first opportunity. By 2002, the number of those junior officers leaving at their first opportunity dropped to 7.1 percent, and in 2003, only 6.3 percent opted out. But the number grew to 8.3 percent in 2004 and 8.6 percent in 2005.

The statistics are even more striking among West Point graduates, who receive an Ivy League-quality education at taxpayer expense — and, in the view of many senior officers and West Point alumni, owe the nation and the Army a debt of loyalty beyond the initial five years of active duty.

The retention rate at the five-year mark for the West Point class of 1999 was 71.9 percent in 2004, down from 78.1 percent for the previous year's class. And for the class of 2000, the retention rate fell to 65.8 percent, meaning that last year the Army lost more than a third — 34. 2 percent — of that group of officers as they reached the end of their initial five-year commitment.

That is the highest rate of loss over the past 16 years among West Point officers reaching the five-year mark. For young officers receiving their commissions in 2006, the Army will guarantee slots in the most sought-after branches of the service — aviation, armor or intelligence, for example — in exchange for an extra three years in uniform.

Similarly, if a young officer wants an initial posting to a desired location or an opportunity to earn a master's degree, the Army will guarantee either choice in exchange for three more years of active duty.

The West Point graduating class of 2006 responded at levels even higher than anticipated by senior officers at the military academy, with 352 of the 875 seniors — 40.2 percent — signing on to the program as they approached the date in late May when they would be commissioned as second lieutenants.

"It is an amazing response," said Lt. Gen. William J. Lennox Jr., the West Point superintendent. "It has exceeded how I thought the class would respond."

Across the entire Army this spring, 3,420 newly commissioned junior officers are expected to enter active duty, according to the Army's personnel office. Of those, 1,124 — about one-third — have agreed to serve an extra three years in uniform under the new program.

According to Army statistics, 718 signed up to choose their career track, 289 contracted for the graduate school opportunity — 257 of them from West Point — and 117 wanted to pick the location where they, and their families, would be based.

The graduate school program was carefully structured to keep officers in uniform even beyond the extra three-year commitment.

After completing a master's degree program, an officer also has to repay the Army with three months of service for every month back in the classroom. This could push some officers beyond an automatic 8 years of service, toward 12 years — at which point, goes the thinking of the senior officers who devised the program, they may decide to stay in for a full 20.

"Today's officers make a career decision to come or go at the three- or four-year mark, while a decade ago they made it closer to the seven- or eight-year mark," said Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's senior personnel officer.

"One of the salient issues in this information age is that if they are going to be competitive when they leave the Army — whether at the 4-year mark, the 10-year mark or after 20 — they have to maintain critical skills," General Hagenbeck said. "They want to have graduate schooling."

The cost of the program will depend on how many young officers enter graduate school in a given year, but Army personnel managers say that whatever the individual annual tuition fees, they are far less than the cost of training and preparing a new officer. The Army will cap individual tuition at $13,000 per year, although the service has already negotiated with a number of schools to waive the difference in fees.

At the five-year mark in their career, Army captains usually are in command of a company, a junior leadership position putting them at the center of the day-to-day fight. The Army needs even more company-level officers today, as it expands the number of its deployable brigade combat teams.
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SamFisher · Apr 10, 2006

rimrocker said:

A little complexity added in this story...
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YESSS!!!

My Yahoo! Fantasy West Point Officer Declining Retention Rate League Team is still..IN CONTENTION

SUCK IT H8RZ!

ROXRAN · Apr 10, 2006

The great retention rate is due in large part to the noble mindset of the modern day U.S. warrior, and a little because of the fact the Army is in full force with the very nice new camo. design!...

FranchiseBlade · Apr 10, 2006

Sam, there is still time to make the trading deadline.

I will trade you one West point class of 2002, Captain, plus 2 Class of 1999 Majors, for a Class of 2001 Captain, and any 2 Lieutenants you choose.

I still have 4 lieutenants that need to opt out in order to stay in the race.

mc mark · Apr 10, 2006

FranchiseBlade said:

I still have 4 lieutenants that need to opt out in order to stay in the race.
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Are they injured?

FranchiseBlade · Apr 10, 2006

mc mark said:

Are they injured?
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No, otherwise I would just replace them from the pool. I read in the mags that 4 of them are going to be stationed in Hawaii so there is a good chance they won't opt out. I am not sure about the others.

ROXRAN · Apr 10, 2006

A great point is the defeat of the "German" XM8 rifle...That silly thing looked like a souped up Beretta CX4, Get a M4, similar to the one I have with Phantom Flash Suppressor, M7 bayonet, Eotech 552 holosight, and you're good to go for up to 300 yards, with M885 for 0 to 100 yards,...(mod 1) black hills 77 grain for the 200 to 300 yard shots...1/7 inch twist 14.5 inch barrel is good enough!...O yea, military gets auto....

Truth is, I'd rather the Army be equipped with the 6.8 SPC rounds, ala the M468 config. ...

rimrocker · Apr 10, 2006

ROXRAN said:

A great point is the defeat of the "German" XM8 rifle...That silly thing looked like a souped up Beretta CX4, Get a M4, similar to the one I have with Phantom Flash Suppressor, M7 bayonet, Eotech 552 holosight, and you're good to go for up to 300 yards, with M885 for 0 to 100 yards,...(mod 1) black hills 77 grain for the 200 to 300 yard shots...1/7 inch twist 14.5 inch barrel is good enough!...O yea, military gets auto....

Truth is, I'd rather the Army be equipped with the 6.8 SPC rounds, ala the M468 config. ...
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This reminds me of the motorheads talking camshafts and such in high school...

ROXRAN · Apr 10, 2006

rimrocker said:

This reminds me of the motorheads talking camshafts and such in high school...
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It's funny that a diamond is in the rough that had to evolve over a 40 year span initiated by a Democratic quantitative analysist urging, but what we have now by the Army is hard pressed to be replaced, and that is a good thing...

SamFisher · Apr 10, 2006

ROXRAN said:

A great point is the defeat of the "German" XM8 rifle...That silly thing looked like a souped up Beretta CX4, Get a M4, similar to the one I have with Phantom Flash Suppressor, M7 bayonet, Eotech 552 holosight, and you're good to go for up to 300 yards, with M885 for 0 to 100 yards,...(mod 1) black hills 77 grain for the 200 to 300 yard shots...1/7 inch twist 14.5 inch barrel is good enough!...O yea, military gets auto....

Truth is, I'd rather the Army be equipped with the 6.8 SPC rounds, ala the M468 config. ...
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What about the Phased-plasma rifle in the forty watt range?

rimrocker · Apr 10, 2006

ROXRAN said:

It's funny that a diamond is in the rough that had to evolve over a 40 year span initiated by a Democratic quantitative analysist urging, but what we have now by the Army is hard pressed to be replaced, and that is a good thing...
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you're talking about...

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