Officer Shortage Looming in Army

[SWJED]

Officer Shortage Looming in Army - USA Today.

The Army, forced by five years of war to expand its ranks, faces a critical shortage of midlevel officers, interviews and military records show.

Those officers -- majors and lieutenant colonels -- manage troops at war. The Army estimates it has about 13,900 majors and 8,750 lieutenant colonels this year. It expects to have an annual shortage of 3,000 such officers through 2013 as it increases its ranks by 40,000 soldiers.

Beyond the shortage of midlevel officers looms an impending shortage of entry-level officers -- lieutenants -- from the U.S. Military Academy and university Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs. Last year, 846 cadets graduated from West Point; the goal was 900. There were 25,100 enrolled in ROTC out of a goal of 31,000, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress' investigative agency.

Only an increase in soldiers put through the Army's Officer Candidate School allowed the service to meet its goal for lieutenants, the report said. The school is a 14-week course that obligates graduates to two years in the Army. It is expected to reach capacity this year, the GAO said...

[RTK]

Officer Shortage Looming in Army - USA Today.

If I don't make it BZ now I'm going to cry....

[selil]

Shortages mean more promotions and opportunity? Or, is it volunteer now at great risk and get demoted in four years when the RIF comes?

[Bill Moore]

Remember when the Company Commander was the old man? Now he is young enough to be the 1st SGT's son (always was younger than Top, but the age difference now is considerable). We accelerated promotions as a retention tool, instead of promoting on a proven development time line. Albeit we have a lot of exceptional officers that can serve at a higher rank sooner, but we are doing them and the Army a disservice when we promote them too quickly. I wonder what the second order effects of this looming officer shortage will be? Maybe we reduce West Point to a 3 year school? Maybe RTK's scheduled BZ look will be his PZ look, and his BZ look will be a year earlier, like the Army just did with their Warrant Officers to "correct" their Senior Warrant Officer shortage and keep junior WO's in? Do you have an experienced Senior Warrant, or just a junior guy wearing senior rank? This isn't sour grapes, but a realization after watching this for a few years that it takes time to produce a professionally mature Senior Officer or Warrant Officer, and short cuts degrade the force.

The military has made a large investment in training these officers and needs to find ways to retain them, but I hope there are other options rather than excelerated promotions. It takes an act of Congress to get their base pay raised (pay a CPT what a MAJ currently makes, and so forth up the food chain), but I think that is better option for the good of the force. It also seems the article was a little harsh on OCS, and I wonder if that is the class conflict from the self annointed long gray line graduates, but I have seen many fine officers come out of OCS, and if we need to increase input by pushing harder for our Strategic Corporals to become officers, then we should do so.

Times are tough for younger combat leaders, especially if they're married, and there is no proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. These smart, driven, and educated officers have other options. We need cures, not band aides.

[120mm]

I second Bill's post. It is ironic that the midlevel shortage now could've been filled by not having the "get the hell out of my army" bloodbath of Year groups 86-90 commissionees. All because the Army is wedded to the idiotic "Up or Out" promotion philosophy.

Today, it is 36 months to CPT. And we are taking these officers who know fundamentally nothing and making them company commanders and staff officers and expect them to take on complex missions. And they are failing, yet we cover it over, and call it success, and a bunch of them are leaving, not because of deployment, necessarily, but because they know the Army will consistently put them in a position to fail.

[John T. Fishel]

When I went on active duty in 1969, I went in as a 1LT having delayed entry for grad school. 12 moths later I was a CPT. My contemproaries who entered as 2LTs were 1LTs in 12 montha and CPTs 12 months later - 24 months to CPT. In wartime promotions always accelerate and decelerate in peacetime. This is not to say it is a good thing, just that it always happens and could be worse.