Let’s get real. In spite of the copious amounts of lipstick the services have been putting on the proverbial people pig, our military is facing a troubling manning crisis. And it’s not about recruiting, necessarily (although those stats are taking a turn for the worse); the bigger problem is retention — keeping those who are already serving to keep serving.
Today’s Washington Post has a couple of op-eds that frame the issue nicely. The first is by a young captain who has decided to get out of the Army. From what I’ve heard his story is representative of the feelings of most of the junior officers and staff NCOs service-wide. They’re willing to do their part, but they also need time to catch their collective breath. The current operational tempo doesn’t afford that, nor does there seem to be any plan in the works to make it so in the forseeable future.
So if these guys are leaving, who’s going to man the force? Another op-ed speaks of casting a wider net. Here’s an excerpt from Who Says the Elite Aren’t Fit to Serve?:
The privileged of prior generations were more likely to consider military service a natural expression of their own privileged relationship to the state — the least, you might say, that they could do in return for the opportunities the nation had granted them. Consider a young John F. Kennedy working connections to obtain a commission that his health would have denied him otherwise. How many from Harvard pull such strings today? To chalk this up to the ethos of a “simpler,” less questioning time would be easy, but it would also be facile.
All else being equal, staffing the armed services with citizens from the broadest range of backgrounds is still the best course. Further, we are in a time, and a conflict, in which the unique demands placed upon the military make the need for innovative leadership acute. (My artillery battalion, for example, conducts foot patrols in Ramadi, performs base security, trains Iraqi police recruits, mans outposts in the desert, forms neighborhood councils, oversees reconstruction projects and … oh yes, shoots artillery.) How better to achieve this than to cast a wide net?
Admiral Mullen has addressed this retention issue, but are the services really doing enough to stymie it? After all, we might have a real threat to our national security emerge in the next few years. Wouldn’t it be best to have a healthy military in place at that time?
– Ward
Even if the facts don’t support the story, push the story
FY 2008 Recruiting
Componant Accessions Goal Percent
Army
18,829 18,600 101
Navy
10,067 10,067 100
Marine Corps
11,113 10,225 109
Air Force
8,280 8,224 101
Army National Guard 21,113 18,400 115
Army Reserve
12,814 12,577 102
Navy Reserve
3,446 3,346 103
Marine Corps Reserve
2,747 2,747 100
Air National Guard
2,831 2,485 120
Air Force Reserve 2,369 2,365 100
07 Recruiting Statistics
Componant Accessions Goal Percent
Army
80,407 80,000 101
Navy
37,361 37,000 101
Marine Corps
35,603 35,576 100
Air Force
27,801 27,801 100
Army National Guard 66,652 70,000 95
Army Reserve
35,734 35,505 101
Navy Reserve
10,627 10,602 100
Marine Corps Reserve
7,959 7,256 110
Air National Guard
9,975 10,690 93
Air Force Reserve 7,110 6,834 104
06 Recruiting Statistics
Componant Accessions Goal Percent
Army
80,635
80,000 101
Navy
36,679
36,656 100
Marine Corps
32,337 32,301 100
Air Force
30,889
30,750 100
Army National Guard 69,042 70,000 99
Army Reserve
34,379 36,032 95
Navy Reserve
9,722 11,180 87
Marine Corps Reserve
8,056 8,024 100
Air National Guard
9,138 9,380
97
Air Force Reserve 6,989 6,607 106
yeah the numbers look great to bad we (the army) pad those like a mental patients room. this April will be the first major exodus of CPTs as it is the first time most of the ROTC commissioned officers can leave. Watch next year for the mass resignations of Westpoint and 5 year flight program commissioned officers. This year the only 2004 year group (mine in fact) officers who could leave are the very small number of OCS and non scholarship ROTC, and they left in large numbers. Enlisted retention may look good but from first hand experience I can say that the ones we are keeping with 20–30 thousand dollar bonuses are not the ones we want to keep in most cases. Discipline is poor among the younger soldiers and will keep getting worst. Oh and Joe let me know when you start getting the “new” privates in their mid to late 30’s they are really useful in combat as door kickers. We are in trouble and if you want to believe the numbers thats fine but those of us who live in a place called reality are getting crushed under the weight of poorly trained low quality recruits.
I just look at the stories, and I see the same stories being pushed time and time again. Eventually I just stop believing.
Military Recruiting 2007: Army Misses Benchmarks by Greater Margin …
It is clear to see that the Military recruitment statistics closely .… The long-term implications of recruiting problems today could be significant. …
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/militaryrecruiting2007 — 70k — Cached — Similar pages — Note this
Ward, you raise a very tough issue. But you come at this with a particular bias towards “retention.” But as we move along, retention can not be the only strategy. As you rightly say, we must cast a wider net. How do we do this? First, look at how you are dealing with the vets. Stop screwing with them! I mean right up to this very minute! The young people are watching and rightly so. Is this a new idea? My answer comes from a relatively modern source, if you consider President George Washington in 1789, relatively modern.
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation.“
I believe this covers a very large group of potential recruits, like all of them. It does cover events like 9/11. It covers the “significant other people” in the potential recruit’s life and their concerns for the potential recruit’s life after the military.
The last thing, in “casting a wider net”, President Bush needs to understand a few things or apply them. Every time he does something questionable or uses “executive privilege” to refuse to answer questions he is setting an example. He is giving them reasons to say, NO, to the recruitors.
–Grumpy
Um, maybe there are recruitment problems because fewer young Americans see the war in Iraq as being something worthy of risking their lives for?
Despite all the talk of how this is the “battle of our generation” (so to speak), the Bush administration clearly doesn’t believe their own rhetoric given their refusal to make meaningful investment decisions in the war. How about raising taxes, starting a draft, converting civilian production to war production, etc, as occurred in WWII when the USA had a far more consequential and important fight on its hands?
The real question is who gives a damn, everytime these brave men and women are overseas, they see the same old thing, why are we spending so much money, can we do better good questions? Then if there injured or need help forget it who need you, if you had a decent job, with benefits you wouldn;t need our help, oh by the way thanks for helping me and my son and daughter, i’ll send them to college so you can defend me and mind. Come on lets get real does anybody really care what the soldier do or die no in this country we care more about footballs stars and baseball stars then we do about people who put there lifes on the line, and are treated like crap when they get back. I’m sorry but look out the future holds more blackwaters not less, pay to do dirt work instead of serve, that the future. Get ready for mercs to do our bidding if we are going to go to war and we will in the future more and more of the merc will be paid to do the dirt work
>How about raising taxes, starting a draft,
>converting civilian production to war
>production, etc, as occurred in WWII when the
>USA had a far more consequential and important
>fight on its hands?
All of which are political impossibilities at this moment. Even if Genghis Khan was President, he could not move the country as it is now into a war footing. President Bush has received only marginal support for the many GWOT initiatives taken during his administration and a frank look at what has happened since 2001 is impressive by any means.
Back to retention, I’m a LT in the Guard and the same concerns swirl around my situation as well, although since I am not Active I do not deploy as much. But if I was on the Active Army deployment tempo, I could not last long before family and finances dictated my resignation. But I also consider it an honor to serve, and honor in the service of one’s country being a concept that I doubt many members of academia closely identify with. I know that from my college days…
We recently had a one star from the pentagon come talk to us (group of captains fresh back from our 2nd and 3rd tours). He said captain retention is statistically still at prewar levels (10–11% attrition) but the issue will be in the next year or two as the army tries to grow by 6 brigades and needs to cut that attrition rate to 5%, especially since they’re having a hard enough time just keeping that 10%.
“For the troops but against the war” = “Against the troops” In a democracy, it is the responsibility of citizens & the Legislative Branch to question the decisions of the Executive Branch. If they decide that the Executive is wrong, then it is their responsibility to do what they can, within the law, to reverse the decision. The by product, in time of war, may be damage to troop morale. No one ever said that democracy is easy.
“Get ready for mercs to do our bidding if we are going to go to war and we will in the future more and more of the merc will be paid to do the dirt work”. The mercenary companies are profitable because the services pay for the training. If you can’t man the services, there won’t be anyone for the PSCs to poach. They’ll have to recruit from outside the USA. You can’t expect foreign mercenaries to accept the same risks on behalf of the USA as US citizens, let alone service members.
It bothers me to say because I’m a veteran… but this country’s support of the war on terror (and especially the guys fighting it) reminds me of going to the dentist. Only at the point of pain do most folks care about the dentist. The rest of the time… they could care less.
Most of the support for the troops is coming from folks who are serving, those who have served… or relatives/friends of the afore-mentioned. You ask an Ivy Leaguer or a Joe Six Pack who knows no one serving in the war on terror… about the war… you’re likely to elicit a yawn. How many Americans have sent care packages to the troops in Iraq/Afghanistan? How many have visited veterans at a VA hospital? The United States of America, the greatest country in the history of mankind… and we still have veteran’s groups begging for money. A god damn disgrace.
To add on to mine and Asterik’s comments, last fall we (army captains) were offered $20-$30k to sign on another 3 years. The only captains I know who got the CSRB were those who already planned on being lifers. Many captains can get a civilian job at least commensurate with their army pay if not more (which is why we’re hard to retain). A $30k — 3 year bonus to someone who makes $60k a year is insulting — especially since new recruits can get up to $40k (twice their annual pay) just for walking in the door.
“I think the way to fight back would be to demonstrate how the armed services could help further a [prestigious, high-paid, obnoxious] Ivy track career. (Think media, consulting, investment banking, law school, grad school)“
And here he inadvertently puts his finger right on the heart of the problem: the way to attract expensively educated narcissists is tell them what’s in it for them!
News flash: the Army doesn’t really care that it’s not getting you, because it regards you as decadently selfish. A post like this only furthers that conviction.
Inadvertent? Finish reading before insulting:
“to attract elites, dangle a carrot that they might actually want” =/= inadvertent
Point missed.
You don’t join the military because it can do something for you. You join it because it’s the right thing to do. The service doesn’t need people who are looking out for their own interest. It needs people who are interested in the well-bring and safety of others. It isn’t a resume bullet. It’s a duty.
That’s just wrong. If that were true for the majority of enlistees there wouldn’t be enticements. If you pay for a volunteer army, you have pay for it; if not, you have to draft them.
nice too meet you
Finally I also said that the most important thing is to find themselves on the state mind, playing their own, the same as me that if happy I will spend Hellgate gold to buy many things. I hope everyone can play happy in the game.
She created green forests and plains that engulfed the lands in the likeness of her youthful complexion. The cheap Shaiya gold sky and stars inherited their exquisiteness from the likeness of her eyes.
Speak our story now, perhaps our story was very common, I met her in the last year, at that time we only said a few words, at that time she was buy the kamas now, we changed our telephone each other.