Posted on 04/12/2007 8:59:57 PM PDT by PAUL REVERE TODAY
WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army is struggling to convince recent West Point graduates to make the military their career. Recent graduates of the U.S. Military Academy are exiting active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday. Many military specialists say repeated tours in Iraq are driving out some of the Army's best and brightest young officers.
Of the 903 officers who graduated from West Point in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service in 2006. More than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, Army statistics showed.
In most years during the last three decades, between 10 percent and 30 percent of West Point graduates opted out after their mandatory five years of service, the newspaper reported.
If anything, it will get worse!
It is, for some, a poor career choice. For a professional soldier there is nothing more compelling than a war.
I sadly agree.
As long as votes can be bought by mega, multi-national corporations, it's only going to get worse - regardless of what "letter" our leaders wear.
Yeah, right.
These guys (and gals) are fighting a war they won't be allowed to win, while leaving behind spouses and children for repeated extended tours. And they might get killed for that?
Top priorities include family and staying alive. This war is NOT WORTH IT. The administration is inept and corrupt.
A stat that might be meaningless. Tell me the 5-year ‘drop rate’ during Vietnam (’72 -75). Then we’ll talk. Academy grads are human beings & they have other options. It shouldn’t be surprising that the rate increases during wartime.
What are they opting out for? 4x annual pay with a civilian contractor supporting the WOT?
The Islamic Republic of Iraq.
Anything less than total war is immoral, and these young officers instinctively know this. That's why they're leaving.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call the administration corrupt, but inept is right on the money.
My family and my husband’s family both have a long tradition of military service. The pattern is to serve for several years and then come home to the family business. However, I have quietly been encouraging my children to skip military service.
When we have less than total war, when warfighters on the battlefield have to call back to CENTCOM and play “mother may I” with a JAG before they can kill a terrorist, when we prosecute Marines for killing the enemy on the battlefield, I don’t want my kids involved in that. Our military is designed and structured to win wars, not nation-build. We are asking these young men and women to do something they are not trained to do, then complaining when it doesn’t go well.
The officers who survived the Clinton purges are now running the military, and many, if not most of them are simply not fit. With few exceptions, they are politicians, not warfighters, and they make decisions accordingly. They’re the type to tell the administration what they think it wants to hear, not want it NEEDS to hear.
Love your tagline!
Highest in more than 30 years...
more than 30 years ago = Vietnam.
I would think war time attrition would defacto be higher than peacetime.
Comprehension skills are essential to decent debate. When one misinterprets, I often suspect they are doing it deliberately to give themselves an opening for their arrogance.
And men who obsess about gender due to their own misogyny really need to grow up.
Women have a higher attrition rate because of motherhood. It is virtually impossible to be a good mother and be in some career fields in the military. I never intended to stay in the military for a full career and most women I knew felt the same way. It was a great place to gain skills and serve my country for a time, but I wanted a family, too, and I wasn’t willing to leave my children for months on end. Very few women are.
I fully support and appreciate our service men and women. I do not support those who are leading them into that hellhole with no plan to do what's necessary to win. My position is NOT that of the liberals, who want to get out at all costs. I want to stay and win, but that's not happening with this bunch of baffoons!
I do not appreciate armchair generals.
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