Posted on 04/25/2023 7:09:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
The U.S. Army is changing its terms of service guidelines and denying soldiers scheduled discharges, a letter signed by 61 aviation officers alleges.
Recruitment and retention failures have beset all five branches of the U.S. military in recent years, with a 2022 Pentagon study finding that 77% of Americans aged 17 – 24 are unfit to serve due to obesity, drug use, or other health issues. The Army missed its 2022 recruiting target by 25%, and Secretary of the Air Force Gen. Frank Kendall said in March that his branch is likely to miss its 2023 target by 10%.
The recruitment and retention failures impact all parts of the military, including its most elite units, multiple news outlets have reported. In an effort to compensate for personnel limitations, the Army is changing its service requirement guidelines for some officers, according to a letter 61 aviation officers submitted to members of Congress. The officers assert that by reinterpreting contract language, the Army is preparing to tack on three years of service to the seven or eight years the airmen were initially promised.
“Army Aviators have been misled by HRC [Human Resources Command], the USMA [U.S. Military Academy] and ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Course] Aviation Branch Representatives, and our Career Managers on the exact length of our service contract,” the officers wrote to at least 11 members of Congress. They are “request[ing] an inquiry into the U.S. Army’s Human Resources Command (HRC) due to significant mismanagement relating to the enforcement of Active-Duty Service Obligations (ADSOs) for Army Aviation Officers.”
Read the letter here:
SCRBD VERSION AT LINK...........
BRADSO Congressional Letter w Encl Compressed Redacted -2 by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
The Daily Caller gave three letter signers anonymity to speak candidly about their experiences attempting to navigate the discharge process.
All three signers emphasized the service contract’s confusing language, with two noting that military lawyers had trouble understanding its terms.
“It was a contract we signed as cadets in ROTC or at West Point,” one aviation officer told the Daily Caller. “Those contracts are kind of sketchy because they technically don’t exist. It’s a made-up document. It’s not a Department of the Army form.”
It’s “definitely a vague document,” a second officer agreed, noting that a Judge Advocate General attorney he consulted gave him an interpretation different from the Army’s and the officer’s. That officer said that all contract signatories were not in a position to question the language of the document when they signed.
“We’re 20-year-old cadets and they’re briefing me that [the three-year Branch of Choice Active Duty Service Obligation (BRADSO)] will be served consecutively to my commissioning course,” he said.
The heart of the issue is when the soldiers must serve their three-year BRADSO. Until recently, the Army allowed aviation officers to serve their BRADSO concurrently with their flight school Active-Duty Service Obligation. The Army recently changed the rules to require the officers to serve the BRADSO consecutively, adding three years to the officers’ service times.
The Daily Caller obtained a video filmed in 2020 of an HRC officer saying that the BRADSO would be served concurrently to the flight school ADSO.
“You’re ADSO upon graduation … you’re not going to have to do three [years] after,” he said, in reference to the BRADSO. The officers note several instances like this one of them being told that the BRADSO would “run concurrently with the flight school ADSO.”
All three officers told the Daily Caller that they were alerted to the changed interpretation in February 2023.
Army HRC did not provide a response to the Daily Caller’s request for comment by publish time.
The Army’s recruitment and retention struggles have particularly impacted the aviation officer corps, the three signatories told the Daily Caller. Aviation officers do not fly as much as their subordinates, and stop flying almost entirely once they get promoted to the rank of major. The lack of flying opportunities is a key reason for retention issues, the officers emphasized.
“Every company commander I’ve had in five-seven years has left. None of them have made a career of it,” the first aviation officer said. Company commanders are typically captains. Some officers want to exit the service before they get promoted to major, which, for most, is effectively a grounded desk position. “I don’t want to do that.”
FORT CARSON, CO – MARCH 31: Cavalry scouts with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team land in a Blackhawk helicopter as they participate in Operation Steel Eagle on March 31, 2022 in Fort Carson, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
“If flying was a guaranteed position for us we would stay,” the third officer added. He said that so many captains are leaving at the end of their service obligation that the Army has begun promoting captains as early as six months ahead of schedule. The Daily Caller was not able to independently verify that assertion.
Members of Congress have repeatedly sounded the alarm on the military’s personnel crisis, with Republicans like Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw suggesting that extensive diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are causing recruitment to drop. Some reports have highlighted extensive drug use and lack of physical fitness among the military age population. A 2018 Heritage Foundation report argued that increased rates of obesity in children and teens could drive a national security crisis.
The offices of North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, Texas Rep. John Carter, North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards, and Pennsylvania Rep. John Joyce confirmed receipt of the letter.
All three officers emphasized that their post-service plans will be significantly disrupted if the Army goes through with the guidelines interpretation.
The first officer explained that moving bases has been difficult for his wife, who works remotely and is planning to stay long-term in the area where he is currently stationed. He plans to fly for commercial airlines after leaving the Army, but worries that three extra years in the military will harm his civilian career.
“It’s telling when there are 130 people that all have the same complaint,” he said. “We know our names are going to be on that [letter]. I know in my heart I’m doing the right thing. This is what is best.”
The second officer explained that he has several family commitments that he will struggle to fulfill if ordered to serve another three years.
“I’ve been planning this for eight years,” he said. “My foot is out the door and they’re changing it up on me.”
The third officer likewise emphasized the strain on his marriage. His wife is unable to work remotely, so they spend significant time apart. He blames the Army for not being more forthright with soldiers about its requirements.
“We are told to uphold all things moral, ethical, and legal. This is not ethical and it’s not done in good faith,” he said.
Patriotism used to give the US Military the best the Nation had to offer, however the US Government and the Military forgot that Patriotism is a Two Way Street.
This is Army so they're most likely helicopter pilots. Although the Army does have a few King Air and Huron twin turboprop aircraft, those pilots are not a regular feeder into the airlines like Air Force pilots.
“Very soon the American economy will weaken considerably.”
And then they can be concerned with the workmanship of the equipment they are trusting being worked on by the lowest bidder and the only ones they could find.
wy69
“The first officer explained that moving bases has been difficult for his wife, who works remotely and is planning to stay long-term in the area where he is currently stationed. “
If she works remotely, then the problem is her attitude. Imagine some officer in the 40s or 50s saying he cannot move because of his wife’s job.
No Involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime. It’s a Constitutional Amendment.
No kidding. What the Army brass appears to be doing is affecting a Stop-Loss without Congressional approval. (Stop-Loss is where individuals with certain specialties are kept on Active Duty past their service commitment date).
Since this is Army, they're most likely helicopter pilots and their last day flying for the Army is likely their last day flying a helicopter. (There are far more helicopter flying jobs in the Army than there are civilian helicopter flying jobs). Why pass a flight physical and prevent yourself from leaving?
An Active Duty Service Committment (ADSC) or Active Duty Service Obligation (ADSO) can be fulfilled in any branch of the military as well as federal employment. I know several who changed branches of service when the one they were in tried to lock them in place. These pilots have a way out if they want to get creative.
The Army brass is playing a risky game. I witnessed large shortfalls in Stop-Loss specialties. New recruits refused to go into them and a large surge of those in that specialty left as soon as the Stop-Loss was lifted. It took years of bonuses to level some specialties out. Others specialties never did level out and the Active Duty instead had to rely on National Guard and Reservists to backfill shortfalls.
The trust is gone.
Probably so.
Then the military will have no trouble filling their ranks ...with self serving foreigners, or retaining skilled officers Infiltrators.
It’s like they don’t remember the 1970s military and don’t think that Carter era can return.
T.B. — What are the Stop-Loss specialties? Can you name a few? Is it because they require the most training / investment, or are they just unpopular specialties? Thanks.
When an 18-20 year old male sees females being rangers, Marine platoon leaders, pilots, etc, there is not much to be gained by doing it also.
“You fly a Blackhawk? Oh cool, so do my sister and her wife....”
He shrugs and goes elsewhere to do something fun.
I have mixed feelings about your point of view. If a foreigner wants to put his life on the line to become an American citizen, the military should be a short path to citizenship.
I do see ways such an offered path can be abused and loyalties may very well divided should our military have to deal with a country that one of our soldiers may have come from.
Sounds like an updated version of Stop-Loss that we had during Desert Storm.
Your suggestion of a draft is more proof democrats have turned the country into a hellhole.
If WOKE idiots want to be in charge of the military, they can sign up their own kids to defend the hellhole they want to make of the old United States... Cause citizens aren’t in the loop anymore. We don’t have skin in the game... and dying to protect ‘them’ is nuts.
Cops are quitting too... Shall the thugs running the US force people to be cops?
There are none currently as we are not at war. (officially)
Stop-Loss specialties are not selected due to training or investment but about how many personnel are on hand versus needed and how critical the skill sets are. The lists seem all over the place until you compare them to your wing's Unit Type Codes (UTCs).
For example:
-Chemical Engineers during the Gulf Wars
-Combat controllers during almost any engagement
-Medical personnel, especially combat medics, during almost any engagement.
-Aircraft maintainers for airframes that are heavily tasked during engagements and they need more maintainers than they have available. For example, C-5 maintainers might be Stop-Lossed but A-10 maintainers might not.
-Pilots qualified to fly certain aircraft, if they don't have enough pilots already. (B-1, B-2, U-2)
--their physiological / life support personnel are usually Stop-Lossed along with them depending on how many aircraft are deployed
-Linguists with the "right" languages that are expected to deploy to forward operating locations
-Munitions instructors (usually not the augmentee bomb assemblers and loaders) if the engagement will involve a large quantity of bombs
-Fuels specialists, usually those who forward deploy to dispersed locations
-Air Traffic Controllers depending on how many overseas locations are involved
-Weather personnel depending on how many overseas locations are involved (it's not just about weather but about having high level security clearances to know what missions are coming through your sector)
-Transporters, not just those certified to sign off on air cargo, but also those signed off on certain vehicles such as heavy duty all-terrain forklifts
-Civil Engineering personnel, especially those trained in Unexploded Ordinance Disposal, aircraft decontamination, Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) decontamination, runway repair (depending on how many forward operating locations involved), etc.
-Security Forces - they're always short staffed in peace time, forget about conflicts
I'm probably leaving out a few that are always Stop-Lossed and offending them but don't intend to.
You need men and women trusted by the people below them and above them. The true value of 'merit' promotions.
When folks in charge were chosen by sexual kink, color or 'NEPO' - (powerful daddy) NO ONE will follow them into battle or want to fight beside them.
Even illegals will figure this out...probably faster than those of us who were lucky enough to live in a free country for as long as we did..
Didn’t tsarist Russia have a 25-year conscription? Lack of recruitment might get so bad that Fedzilla will require this.
The Army is just stalling until the next war is started. Then they won’t have to worry about pesky things like contracts they’ll just keep them all in for the duration. The duration will be no longer than that minor little Afghanistan thing.
I wuz done drafted twice in 6 years.
They'll be needed to arrest all of Biden's opponents.
Pardon me, I have to make a scheduled discharge.
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