Officer Retention

[Ken White]

Unless you're a brain surgeon or burn specialist, or something like that, which simply isn't done in Iraq, there is no excuse for a MAJ (or CPT P) to be without a deployment. Not at 8 years into the war. There is just no excuse.

Army Human Resources Command in full cry.

Without knowing branches involved, it's difficult to refute your generic position with specificity -- but a generic response could and would be that there are stabilized tours which HRC will rarely if ever violate and a person could have been in say the 1st Cav in 2003, moved to the Career Course in 04, stabilized tour 04-07, grad school 08-09. Or Grad school earlier then a utilization tour. Or gone to Korea in 04 returned from a short tour in 05 thus into a three year lock, thence to...

Well, you get the idea.

I hear what you're saying and I don't doubt there are a few who diligently avoided a tour -- but the probability is that everyone who has no deployments did not cheat to do so; it's the luck of the draw in a big, bureaucratic organization whose personnel system does NOT go to war and is emphatically not designed to support small wars; such wars are an unwanted intrusion into its 'orderly processes.'

Find a CS branch that isn't in Iraq- they all are, and if you are a MAJ and haven't deployed, you are hiding.

Sweeping statement. What's the net usage ratio in Iraq (or Afghanistan) of Signal Corps types, all modes including Strategic SatCom specialists? Info Systems specialists? How about acquisition types? Strategic MI Specialists? What's the net number of Engineer units and jobs versus the number of elements deployed? Aviation types who are Aeronautical Engineers doing R&D stuff? MI guys on the RC7 / EO5 birds? Or the MI guy who gets credit for no deployment but has been in a sensitive job in an unnamed nation -- and in more danger than all his peers in Iraq? Or the poor Engineer Captain who got stuck at the wrong time in this : LINK or his buddy who was an exchange officer with the Bundeswehr? The airplane driver (or other CS type) assigned to MilGroup Argentina -- or Brazil? The Aviator who was assigned to the DAO in Estonia to ferry Stan about?

If you don't want to be a combat leader, find another organization.

I strongly agree with that sentiment -- I equally strongly disagree that anyone who has not deployed fits automatically in that category.

As I told both my sons who went to jump school; "Go forth and do great things, I'm proud of you. Do not swallow that airborne mystique foolishness, that stuff will get you killed -- and always remember to take a 2 second think break before acting or speaking." I also told them to be nervous about a combat leader who's prone to sweeping absolutes. I've seen too many of those guys get too many people killed for no good reason.

It's a big Army and it does a lot of things too many in it do not even know it does...

[Van]

I have to second Ken's observations regarding the Human Resource Command. Being a 'resource' sometimes means getting treated as shelf stock, to the point where I feel like NOS (New old stock; never sold, but very dated).

I hear what you're saying and I don't doubt there are a few who diligently avoided a tour -- but the probability is that everyone who has no deployments did not cheat to do so; it's the luck of the draw in a big, bureaucratic organization whose personnel system does NOT go to war and is emphatically not designed to support small wars; such wars are an unwanted intrusion into its 'orderly processes.'

As far as I can tell, the more aggressively you volunteer to deploy, the further down the list of "resources to manage" you get placed.

I've stopped trying to deploy and, as a Reservist, am just taking the tours I can find.