Sunday, May 22, 2005
They were waist deep in the Big Muddy and they don't want to push on.
The other side of the Armys' manpower problem is retaining the experienced junior commanders who have "been there and done that". The LA Times has an article on the steady drain of lieutenants and captains who should be the core of its future command structure.
It is especially troubling for Pentagon officials that the Army's pool of young captains, which forms the backbone of infantry and armored units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be the hardest hit.And what kind of men are leaving the service for the corporate world?
Last year, Army lieutenants and captains left the service at an annual rate of 8.7% — the highest since 2001. Pentagon officials say they expect the attrition rate to improve slightly this year. Yet interviews with several dozen military officers revealed an undercurrent of discontent within the Army's young officer corps that the Pentagon's statistics do not yet capture.
Young captains in the Army are looking ahead to repeated combat tours, years away from their families and a global war that their commanders tell them could last for decades. Like other college grads in their mid-20s, they are making decisions about what to do with their lives.
And many officers, who until recently had planned to pursue careers in the military, are deciding that it's a future they can't sign up for.
"I am seeing the highest caliber of candidates now that I have seen in five years of doing this," he said. "The companies we work with are absolutely, unbelievably impressed."Makes you wonder what is left for the Army?
Employers such as General Electric Co., Home Depot Inc. and others are always on the lookout for managerial talent, Hollitt said, and mid-level commanders tested in war are considered experienced leaders.
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