Officer Retention

[Dennis]

I agree with the points made by Cavguy as the source of the issues and I concur with Rob's approach to the problem.

The system is way to focused on the 50 meter target (retaining first term guys) at the expense and disillusionment of the 100-150 meter target (2nd term and career guys.

The system of rewards have to get back to encouraging long term buy in to the organization and not just doing your 2-4 years and taking your money or education and heading off to the private sector to make some real money.

It's about rewarding the right behavior, which in turn shows what the system values. Right now those who have been sacrificing and who continue to do so are not rewarded accordingly. The incentives that were recently proposed for young CPTs is a perfect example, focus on getting the new people to sign up for longer but no reward for those that are already committed and will likely stay for 20.

I know that I initially joined the Army as a way to ensure an acceptable quality of life for my family and because I wanted to be part of an honorable and respected profession. I really can't complain about the rewards I have recieved as I have been able to give my family a great quality of life and have had a BA and now a master's paid for by the Army. However, it is difficult to see others who have done less and likely will do less get rewarded more simply because we need the bodies.

I agree with Rob's assessment that we must make the military be an attractive profession to the masses. This is very difficult in an economic environment that offers much greater monetary opportunities in the civilian sector.

Although I too would like to remain positive about this, the pragmatic side of me feels that this really won't get better until the US economy takes another down turn and it becomes attractive again for those high quality people, who succeed in everything they do, to stay on board for the long haul.

[Van]

WM
The solution is imbedded in your restatement of the problem, if I may quote slightly out of context:

a much larger investment in people

There's the solution, but noone in a position to change things is ready to acknowledge that the baby is really this ugly.

Now just a little more of the story; at the time that I left the AC, my branch had THE worst retention rate for company grade officers. Was the Korean War era personnel management system the only issue? No. Was it a major issue? Yes. I'll agree that it is part of a bigger problem, but I believe that it is "the last straw" for many folks we should really be trying to keep.