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Hello, Sir, how long have you been retired? I was medically retired from civil service 6 years ago and at the time, an article 15 was being treated like a slap on the wrist with the army. I retired AF like yourself, and back in the 70’s through the 80’s, like you said, an article 15 was the kiss of death for reenlistment.

But the military has to be a little more choosey now as the economy is thriving and people don’t want to re-up along with new possible troops wishing to join. There’re told there’re too many jobs out there that are guaranteed to make them their first million by age 25. Retention is at a standstill. In the army this year’s end strength target was supposed to be 483.500 in the enlisted corps. It opened at 476,000 the same as last year’s ending force count without the increase they planned.

Even the Army National Guard and Reserve are balancing but they indicate the holding is not from recruits, but soldiers transitioning from active duty that have been moving to part-time service. Everyone is feeling the failure of success in this area. So the only way to keep the numbers strong, is be a little more lenient in the promotion of disciplinary actions whether it reduces discipline or not. It ends up quantity rather than quality. And they don’t know how to increase it to keep the corps at the high level. Better to give the troop a month of extra duty than get an article 15 on record. The PIF can be purged. UCMJ records can’t legally.

rwood