Officer Retention

[Norfolk]

Norfolk,

We haven't interacted on these boards, but I read what you post with interest and appreciate your analysis and understanding of history. That said, what is the substantive basis for your statement quoted above? Most every officer I know has anecdoteal stories about good guys who left the service for various reasons, but I don't know of any quantitative analysis (if it were even possible to do one) that shows the majority leaving the Army are the better leaders. Is this based off an analysis of the level of combat experience held by these officers vice their peers? Leadership positions held? A comparrison of ACOM OERs to COM OERs? If it's an assumption, what are the facts upon which it is based? That only the duds with no options will stick around? (True in my case, but let's not sell the rest of the US officer corps short!)

Hello CR6,


First off, I intended no offence to anyone, and I apologize for causing any.

Admittedly I don't have a formal study sitting in front of me stating that X-number/percentage of such-and such rated officers have taken their leave of the Army. But I have seen the official figures posted on these boards of junior officer classes who have taken their releases - the latest and most startling being that of the class of 2002 in which 57% of the Army's officers who entered that year have taken their releases. Undoubtedy that will include a good many of the best. It will be itnersting to see what the retention and release figures for the class of 2003 will be.

I have also listened to the statements made by other serving officers here on these boards, from Cavguy to Rob Thornton to 120 mm, et al. about not only how so many of the good one's they've seen go, but also how they've struggled with the decision to leave or stay while seeing their peers or subordinates go. That, and having witnessed what happened to the Canadian Army under many of the same stresses back in the 1990's, and I think a fairly decent picture of what is happening to the junior and future senior leadership of the U.S. Army is starting to take form. We are unlikely to get a formal report from the U.S. Army explicitly stating that it has lost either a significant proportion or even the bulk of its best young officers. But something much more substantial than just a bunch of horror stories about officer retention is going on.