Army Officers: Are You Leaving or Staying? Why?

[M.L.]

This is a carryover from the discussion on "The Iron Major Shortage." (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/200...rtage/#c020176)

The Army is short of officers, and particularly Majors. Some say it's because many CPTs and MAJs are leaving. Others say it's because the Army has too many slots and suffers from officer bloat.

What do you think?

Why is the Army short Majors?

If you are an Army officer, do you plan to leave or stay in? Why?

[Starbuck]

Keep in mind that the "Iron Major" article was written in 2008.

With an economic downturn, drawdown in Iraq, and military personnel cuts, I doubt the gap is as wide as predicted in 2008.

[Morgan]

Not sure what to think about the apparent shortage of MAJ's. Branch says "yes, we are definitely short majors which is why we cannot guarantee that you'll get the job/ posting/ country you want". But wherever I go, I do not notice any shortage. Furthermore (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) I've repeatedly volunteered for a TT assignment back to A'stan but have discovered that be quite impossible....kinda odd given that there is a war going on there, at least that's what the news says.

So are we short MAJs? Not sure.

If we're short MAJs, why......probably a combination of things from too many deployments to hyper-risk averse leaders who stifle initiative, promote management by Powerpoint, & demonstrate an inability to think outside of conventional perspectives to Household 6 threatening divorce if hubby doesn't stay home for a while (see point 1), yadda, yadda, yadda......

Am I staying in? Yup.....will retire in a couple of years. The retirement pay will come in handy.

[bumperplate]

I have a love/hate relationship with the military. I believe in it and that leads me to get idealistic at times so I get angry with problems. But in my moments of clarity I simply accept that there are those (careerists) that are bad for the military. There are those (professionals) that are good for the military. I keep striving to be a professional. It's a lifelong effort. Don't know where I stand right now, but I know what category I'm aiming for.

I am very frustrated with not being able to get back into theater until certain blocks have been checked, whether it's dwell, PME, or whatever the case may be. Just because some people said deployments hurt their family or caused them to get out doesn't mean that applies to me. Why should I have to sit at home to satisfy some dwell requirement when I'm ready to go? Somebody in theater could use my assistance right now and that's where I want to go - but branch continually says no, you need to do x,y,z.

As Morgan mentioned: I've come up on the net volunteering for TT (again), no dice.

Despite the fact that I'm over the hump and looking at retirement, what will force me out will be: not being able to get back into theater, a return to a garrison military (translation: full on retard mode with dog & pony shows and out of control senior officers and CSMs who will somehow find a way to implement a point system for the new APRT, will somehow manage to bring in pressing of the ACU, and will force us to return to canned training exercises so they can figure out how to assess commanders, do block checks, and basically steer us toward everything but a combat mindset and a warrior ethos, etc), and neglecting hard lessons we've learned for the sake of some General's talking points about family, or values, or comprehensive fitness, or some similar nonsense that briefs well but is never practiced well. Unfortunately, some of those signs are already there. GEN Dempsey's recent comments seem to be turning into a mantra, something about fitness, values, or something. It won't be long before the "yes men" in our formation start to parrot that. Hard to understand how people with no spine can wedge their noses so far up someone's ass.

There's a MAJ in my unit that has no business being a FG...there's a CPT that was selected to take over a unit and he's a total spotlighter....there's a 1SG that doesn't do PT from what I can tell. I don't like any of that. But I'll deal with that nonsense, but the stuff in the paragraph above will drive me out if we go that direction. I have a good resume, good CV, a master's degree (and not from some online program), and good OERs. I can double my money and cut my stress in half by leaving. But I believe in the military. However, I don't believe in things mentioned in the paragraph above, and that's what would force me out.

I'm not advocating some Charlie Sheen-esque, blunt force, "duh winning" message be delivered to our top brass but they need to start figuring some things out. If they don't, they're going to run off all the warfighters and when the next war starts, we're going to lose a ton of people as a result.

[AdamG]

I'm laughing like Max Cady.

Poor leadership is driving soldiers to leave the Army, reinforcing the service’s push to make leader development a top priority. The results come from a survey by the Army Research Institute that showed 26 percent of sergeants and staff sergeants and 23 percent of lieutenants and captains surveyed planned to leave the Army after completing their current service obligations.

Of those, 35 percent of enlisted and 26 percent of officers cited the quality of leadership at their duty stations as a reason for leaving.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/0...medium=twitter

[bumperplate]

I would state with confidence that the institutional Army has played the most significant role in producing and promoting these leaders that so many now want to get away from. It's also played a large role in producing and promoting those G.O.s that say they want to fix things. Given that, I don't see real change coming about.

If and when our G.O.s read these comments, I wonder what they think. They probably think the rest of us are idiots.