By The Commander of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell is the senior most blogger that I know of in the US Army and he has started an interesting debate on his blog about retaining Majors in the Army:
A recent article in the Armed Forces Journal by MAJ Myles Caggins, III, discussed possible incentive plans to retain U.S. Army majors. Caggins asserts that qualified enlisted recruits receive up to $40,000; Army captains $35,000; Navy officers $121,000; and a typical Army major – nothing. He offers some creative proposals he believes would help retain more of our field grade officers – you all.
The Global War on Terror has tested our Army’s personnel management systems. The shortage of majors has many causes, not the least of which is junior officer retention rates, the creation of modular brigades, and growth of our Army.
Consider, for example, the “cohort” of Army officers who were commissioned in 1998. They originally numbered 4,155. Those the Army retained have now served 10 years of active duty. Although the Army still requires about 2,200 of these officers, it has only kept about 1,800. Additionally, the ranks of captain through lieutenant colonel are only manned at 80 percent strength.
The Army cannot accept risk in its officer corps, and the consequences of how we act now will have generational impacts. We’re soliciting your help. Please provide feedback on how you think we can retain quality field grade officers. Specifically, what motivates you and your peers to continue to serve? Do you think there should be increased incentives? Should there be changes in assignments, policies or education? What would you recommend? [CGSC Blog]
Here are three things I recommend as choices that a Major could make in his tenth year of service:
- Offer a $50,000 Bonus Payment – If you read the Armed Forces Journal article you will see that a Navy Lieutenant Commander that is the equivalent rank of a US Army Major can receive up to $121,000 in bonuses while a US Army Major receives nothing. People should want to serve in the Army first and foremost for patriotic reasons, but when mid-career officers are hit by constant family separations and then see that they can make more money as a civilian many decide to go that route. A bonus of some kind I think would keep more of these Majors in the Army.
- Education Furlough – Let a Major take two years off at his/her’s ten year mark to go to school and pursue advanced education using the new GI Bill benefits. The officer would still receive their monthly pay, but the two years would not count toward their retirement. This would allow the Army to have a more educated officer without losing years of service from that officer. I have always thought that something like this should be offered to mid-career NCO’s as well in order to give them a chance to pursue an advanced education as well.
- Mid-Career Furlough – Allow someone at their ten year mark if they do not want to take an education furlough a chance to have one year off at full pay or two years off at half pay to pursue other interests or just spend time with their families. Like the education furlough this time off would not count towards their retirement.
At the 20 year mark these same options should be available in return for three more years of service. This would keep more officers in the military past their 20 year retirement mark plus create a better educated officer corps. I believe these same options should be explored to be offered to our NCO’s as well.
The people posting over at General Caldwell’s blog provide plenty of other recommendations, but I think if the Army just implemented these three suggestions it would cause many US Army Majors to reevaluate whether or not they should leave the service. Does anyone else have any better ideas they want to recommend?
11:03 am on April 27th, 2009 1
http://cgsc.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p4013coll2&CISOPTR=2466&CISOBOX=1&REC=8
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April 28th, 2009 at 6:00 am
MAJ Brown thanks for the link. It was an interesting read. I’m curious to what you think of my three option idea at the 10 & 20 year mark?
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12:36 pm on April 27th, 2009 2
I like the educational furlough idea. I also think a nice big fat raise might not hurt either.
Right now the military is struggling to retain its officers with an unprecedented OPTEMPO. People are only willing to give so much before their “bottle is full.” Particularly when families are involved.
You can’t throw the “Patriotism” card in their face either after they’ve served at least–and most cases several–combat tours for their country. Plus many of these people are merely moving over to other government jobs (e.g. Homeland Security is hiring like crazy right now), and these jobs are honorable public service billets as well. Getting a job with Customs and Border Protection can pay just as well, offer a good retirement, you’ll still be serving your nation, and you won’t be constantly deploying.
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April 28th, 2009 at 5:58 am
I came up with the furlough ideas because it would allow people to take a break from deployments but also either pursue their education goals or in the mid-career furlough option to do things as various as working an internship, join the Peace Corps, work on a religious mission, or just simply chill out at home.
Either way the Army is going to get a better educated, rested, and motivated soldier back once they come off the furlough. The Army wouldn’t lose much money either because the GI bill would pay for educational expenses and if people choose to take the $50,000 bonus I think that would be off set by the Army reducing bonuses given to soldiers in lower pay grades. I think many soldiers would reenlist if they knew at the 10 year mark these options were available to them.
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April 28th, 2009 at 6:39 am
The Army would also get back a fat and lazy field grade who is more worthless than before. There’s enough of that, already.
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1:03 pm on April 27th, 2009 3
I like all three of your suggestions. What it boils down to is that the Army is really good at dangling carrots for both enlisted and officers up to the magic 8-year mark, at which time statistically the Army assumes most will want to stay in until retirement anyways, so it’s OK to start screwing people over with no Vaseline at that point.
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April 27th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Could not agree more. I got a pocket knife when I enlisted (needs of) in 99. I was at 14 years. Nothing was offered to stay in past 20, in 2005 while in Iraq, except the offer of two more years. F that.
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1:51 pm on April 27th, 2009 4
By the way, there is something to be said about the way majors are treated and their duty positions. Sure, there may be more field grade positions due to transformation, but most of these are cubicle-based Office Space jobs (like mine has been for years). If we could allow majors to be headquarters company-level commanders or something like that, it would help greatly. A year or so of platoon leader time and a year or so of command isn’t enough time doing the sorts of things Army guys want to do by wearing the green tab. Generals have the power to make this happen…just a big hand sweep in FMS to code all HHC-level commands as O4 slots would do the job.
Get us field grades out of the cubicles and into the field!
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4:29 pm on April 27th, 2009 5
Mark,
And it wouldn’t hurt if they stopped treating them like field-grade second lieutenants that are less trustworthy than eff-ing privates.
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7:10 pm on April 27th, 2009 6
But then again, I have had some Majors that really needed to get out. For the good of the Army. I also had some very good Commanders. I remember BOTH of them from my twenty years. One was in Forth ID in Bosnia 1999. The other was at C Co. 52 AVN, 23RD SUPPORT GROUP, Camp Humphreys 1992.
Did not see any that needed to stay in at Ft Hood. They do something to Officers when they come to Hood. I think it is medical. Remove the “common sence” gland or something.
I learned to almost NEVER trust what a Major said. Many WO also. Those people need to learn to listen to their NCOs.
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April 27th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
80/90s,
There are bad apples serving in every grade–that’s the way of things. For every bad officer in the universe there is an equally incompetent NCO standing there staring right back at him. It gets real easy to blackball an entire class of soldier due to a couple of clowns.
I can name every single jacked up officer and NCO I ever knew in twenty years of service. But I would be hard pressed to name all of the good ones. I suppose the idiots just sort of stick out.
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8:28 pm on April 27th, 2009 7
Stop giving them DUI’s.
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4:23 am on April 28th, 2009 8
$50,000 sounds good to me. I just got $35,000 the other year for doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.
It’s not like leaving is really an option. I already have over 10 years of mine and my family’s life invested in this. It’s a waste of all of our hardships over the past decade if I just quit and go home.
Besides, I’m dedicated to serving my country, just like millions of men before me. I have things better than they ever did. Should I quit because I have to sit in a cubicle? Should I quit because some O-6 dogs me out every once and a while?
I’ll tell you, though. If I hear someone from DA or HRC talk crazy about the officer shortage being caused by Army transformation, and not by crazy attrition, then I will quit. They’re liars and I can’t stand it.
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