<p>Army works to plug drain
Incentives targeted at young officers as their ranks decline</p>
<p>By Thom Shanker
New York Times News Service
Published April 10, 2006</p>
<p>WASHINGTON -- Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers.</p>
<p>Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing the initial five-year obligation. It was the second year in a row of worsening retention numbers, apparently marking the end of a burst of patriotic fervor during which junior officers chose continued military service at unusually high rates.</p>
<p>Mirroring the problem among West Pointers, graduates of reserve officer training programs at universities also are increasingly leaving the service at the end of the four-year stint in uniform that follows their commissioning.</p>
<p>To entice more to stay, the Army this year is offering new incentives, including a promise of graduate school on Army time and at government expense to newly commissioned officers who agree up front to stay in uniform for three extra years. Other enticements include the choice of an Army job or the pick of a desirable location for a home post in exchange for an extra three years in uniform.</p>
<p>The incentives resulted in additional three-year commitments from about one-third of all new officers entering active duty in 2006, a number so large that it surprised even the senior officers in charge of the program. But the service's difficulty in retaining current captains has generals worriedly discussing whether the Army will have the widest choice possible for its next generation of leaders.</p>
<p>The program was begun this year to counter pressures on junior officers to leave active duty, including the draw of high-paying jobs in the private sector; the desires of a spouse for a calmer, civilian quality of life; and, for the past two years, the concerns over repeated tours in Iraq or Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Army has had a far more difficult time in its recruiting than the other services, because the ground forces are carrying the heaviest burden of deployments--and injuries and deaths--in Iraq.</p>
<p>One member of the West Point class of 2000 who left active duty last year is Stephen Kuo, who took a job with a medical equipment company in Florida. Kuo said his decision was based on "quality of life." He is now recruiting classmates for his company.</p>
<p>"With the rotation of one year overseas, then another year or so back at home, then another overseas rotation--it does take a toll on you," said Kuo, who served a year in combat in northern Iraq. "Plus, I was not enjoying the staff jobs--desk jobs--I was looking at for the next eight to 10 years. Furthermore, the private sector had many lucrative offers."</p>
<p>But the chance at a free master's degree persuaded Brandon Archuleta, a current West Point senior, to sign up for an extra three years in uniform.</p>
<p>"Education is extremely important to me, and I know I want a master's degree at the very least," Archuleta said.</p>
<p>The retention rate at the five-year mark for the West Point class of 1999 was 71.9 percent in 2004, down from 78.1 percent for the previous year's class. And for the class of 2000, the retention rate fell to 65.8 percent, meaning that last year the Army lost more than a third--34. 2 percent--of that group of officers as they reached the end of their initial five-year commitment.</p>
<p>That is the highest rate of loss over the past 16 years among West Point officers reaching the five-year mark.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune</p>