The Internet: A Portal to Violent Islamist Extremism

[Schmedlap]

I suggest the bonuses are indeed a response to societal changes -- the metrosexualization slash liberalization and the increasing emphasis individualism for just two impactors -- but those are responses to address the societal impacts, not drivers of the size and structure.

I'd also suggest that junior officer retention invariably decreases with a volunteer force in any wartime scenario; the wives don't like it and the more sensitive of said J.O find out that war is brutal and not just an academic exercise, they are turned off at the waste and trauma (as is most everyone; some just tolerate it better than others).

I'm an Infantry Captain who is passing up the $35,000 retention bonus without hesitation and who has spent a fair amount of time discussing the rationale behind this new bonus. Discussions have been nearly unanimous: whomever came up with this half-baked idea is completely out of touch with the values, interests, and general morale of the Captains, if not all other ranks as well.

My peers and I always seem to come back to the same set of issues for why we want to either take a break from the Army or leave it forever (most of us are undecided between these two alternatives, but steadfast in our decisions to leave for now):
1. The career of an Army officer is 1/4 command time and 3/4 staff time - and most staff work is mindless, meaningless work that could be done by people with far less training and physical prowess.
2. Most of us have social lives for one weekend, in every fourth month of even-numbered years - and/or recently divorced. The rest of the time, we're in the field, in Iraq, or pulling an all-nighter at work. If the two-month double rotation at NTC were really as worthwhile as the OC's claim it to be, then maybe this would be seen as more than just an unnecessary wet blanket on our non-existent social lives.
3. There is little to no merit involved in personnel moves. A Brigade's command queue is not based upon merit. It is based upon year group and date of arrival at the duty station (some BDE's might vary). There is tremendous frustration among Captains waiting for a command and seeing a known dud take a company simply because it's his turn when everybody, to include his rater and senior rater, openly admit that he is a dud... but it's his turn!

While #2 above may sound like it violates the value of selfless service, the frustration is not due simply to the lack of social lives, but the reason behind it. If we were leading platoons or commanding companies for years on end, then the absence of a social life is understandable and a cost that I think all of us would bear without hesitation. If we are sacrificing our social lives to put together a 90-slide presentation on how we're going to conduct next month's gunnery density (because it changes so much!) then that is where the anger sets in.

[marct]

Hi Scmedlap,

While #2 above may sound like it violates the value of selfless service, the frustration is not due simply to the lack of social lives, but the reason behind it. If we were leading platoons or commanding companies for years on end, then the absence of a social life is understandable and a cost that I think all of us would bear without hesitation. If we are sacrificing our social lives to put together a 90-slide presentation on how we're going to conduct next month's gunnery density (because it changes so much!) then that is where the anger sets in.

Thanks for this - it's one of the best descriptions I've heard of the reasons for leaving! I hope you won't take it amiss, but your reactions are the quintessence of Gen Y's views on meaning. Sort of a generic, "if it's got to be done, do it, do it well, and don't complain.. If it's drek, then say so and don't bother with it."

What, in your opinion and coming out of your bull sessions, would get you and your compadres to say "Yeah, this is worth re-upping"?

Marc

[Ken White]

By the way, I may have in another lifetime known your Father or maybe Uncle; first name Smedley? Come to to think of it, though, he may have been 'Schmerdlap' with an 'r.'

I agree the bonuses are a bad idea. I agree that whoever came up with the idea (probably the same guy who came up with $80K to leave the Army in 1994 applied to sharp CPT and MAJ) is an idiot.

I agree that most of what you say applies to other ranks as well. more so than the Army seems to realize...

I agree on the 1/4 command time versus inane staff jobs and having been forced into several of those due to age and civilian status late in life for about 12 straight years in a HQ echelons above reality I have horror stories out the wazoo about aimless unnecessary work...

I really agree with and understand your last paragraph and it truly and seriously pains me to say that the problem went for all the 45 years I was in or working for the Army and it is obvious that it still occurs twelve years later.

That is a huge lick on the Generals.

They are going to face a grass roots rebellion fairly soon and they do not seem to either realize it or be very concerned about it. SAD.

[Norfolk]

Smedley

I agree the bonuses are a bad idea.

I agree that most of what you say applies to other ranks as well. more so than the Army seems to realize...

I agree on the 1/4 command time versus inane staff jobs and having been forced into several of those due to age and civilian status late in life for about 12 straight years in a HQ echelons above reality I have horror stories out the wazoo about aimless unnecessary work...

I really agree with and understand your last paragraph and it truly and seriously pains me to say that the problem went for all the 45 years I was in or working for the Army and it is obvious that it still occurs twelve years later.

That is a huge lick on the Generals.

They are going to face a grass roots rebellion fairly soon and they do not seem to either realize it or be very concerned about it. SAD.

Let the Reaction Begin!

(You didn't expect someone so far out on the Right that he considers Conservatism to be a concession to Modernism and that Genghis Khan doesn't even make his B-List to call for a Revolution, did you?)

[marct]

Fight to a Finish

The boys came back. Bands played and flags were flying,
And Yellow-Pressmen thronged the sunlit street
To cheer the soldiers who’d refrained from dying,
And hear the music of returning feet.
‘Of all the thrills and ardours War has brought,
This moment is the finest.’ (So they thought.)

Snapping their bayonets on to charge the mob,
Grim Fusiliers broke ranks with glint of steel,
At last the boys had found a cushy job.

. . . .
I heard the Yellow-Pressmen grunt and squeal;
And with my trusty bombers turned and went
To clear those Junkers out of Parliament.

Siegfried Sassoon

[Norfolk]

Oh marc, now I've got this warm, fuzzy feeling all over.

[Schmedlap]

What, in your opinion and coming out of your bull sessions, would get you and your compadres to say "Yeah, this is worth re-upping"?

Correct numbers 1 and 3 from the list. That will render number 2 irrelevant. I think that most of us would trade a pay CUT for 1 and 3 being remedied.