WaPo - Army Offers Big Cash To Keep Key Officers
WaPo - Army Offers Big Cash To Keep Key Officers
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More than 18,000 Army captains are eligible for the bonuses and more than a third of those have taken them since the new cash offer was announced on Sept. 13, senior Army officers said this week. An additional 900 officers have taken other incentives to stay on.
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The Army's goal is for 85 percent of those eligible to stay on, either taking the bonus or another incentive such as attending graduate school or selecting their next post.
Going on the "economy" for our kids' education
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nd there may come a day when the teachers lose that bond with the parents they support, and then Johnny comes home black and blue from a bully that the teacher ignored for weeks on end. You should see the teachers at all of my daughters' schools. They are married to Marines, were raised by Marines, etc. They don't take crap from anybody, least of all a snot-nosed 5th grader.
Amen - we recently moved off post for the move to Carlisle for BSAP where we moved to a nearby town because after 14 months deployed I decided to take the family with me vs. leaving them for another 8 months then going back to a high OPTEMPO job - my attempt to balance out my responsibility to the Army and my family life (BTW - so far it looks in the too hard to do column - the Institution is not geared to resource balance) - back on thread - anyway the school we wound up in had a good reputation and the corporate housing we leased had some good families in it (although I've about maxed myself out to make it happen - personal choice and worth it to us). My boy was having some problems getting integrated into the school - he'd never had problems before - he'd always done really well. So one day when I had driven back there on the weekend commute from Belvoir (location of current follow on school for new majors- also not "installationally" geared to the soldier returning from deployment and TDY enroute) I went and saw his teacher. Nice lady, good school, but no clue of what its like to be a service member, no real understanding of what deployments do to kids, no real empathy for kids whose parents do what we do, and not the same types of teachers we had at Knox. Kids were different too - they'd all been friends since Kindergarten - whereas kids on post know what its like to show up at a new post and have to make new friends, they know what its like to have a dad or Mom deployed, and they know at least one other kid whose mom or Dad did not come back. Military kids are special in that regard, and they deserve the very best - and so do their military parents - the last thing we want is for deployed Moms and Dads worrying about their kids and their spouses while they should be focused on the mission. Doing away with DoDS means kids being bussed off post in many cases and civilian kids being bussed on post as subject to local zoning rules. It also means local teachers paid by local standards vs. the quality of teacher who will commute for the extra DoDS money - it makes a difference.
Norfolk - you are absolutely correct - it is starting to feel like a corporation in all the ways we don't like,and all the ways that we profess we are different - honestly - it leaves you with a knot in your stomach.
Best, Rob