Well,
It may help some.
But honestly, the jobs that a West Point grad could get would probably exceed their attained pay grade during their five year term. In their minds, they paid their debt to their country, possible did a couple of rotations in Iraq, and now they want to get on with their lives, marry and have kids. Nothing wrong with that.
Howver, if people are specifically getting out because they do not want to keep rotating back to Iraq, that would mean we don’t have enough troops to keep below a deployment tolerance level.
Its hard to maintain the patriotic fervor for Iraq when you know we aren’t going to deploy 100,000 more or so to do the job. Its like we are just maintaining in hopes that the Iraqi forces grow large enough to take over, to develop their own networks and methods of dealing with the enemy within. It will be a lot less humanitarian but its hard to negotiatie with rabid dogs. But, it should be their problem now. We can give them supplies, equipment, SOF, and CAS, but that is where it should eventually end up.
I am a West Point grad with two years remaining on my contract, so hopefully I can dispel some of the gross inaccuracies I’ve seen posted here and give a good perspective on what’s going on.
-West Point grads are not political appointees. They must receive a nomination, but most never meet the person who gives them a nomination. Many others get athletic appointments to play in a sport and don’t have to go through the process.
-A very small percentage leave after the two year mark. If it was more than 1-2% I would be shocked.
-9/11 happened at the beginning of my second year. We all had the opportunity to leave after that, but we were too motivated to defend our country; even those who went for the wrong reasons initially.
-I plan on getting out as soon as I can. My wife(another grad) does as well. I would say that over half of the grads I know in my class will be getting out as well. Why? First, because the deployment tempo is taking a huge toll on families(over 70% divorce rate). Second, the deployments could be tolerated if our politicians would get their act together. The general feeling is that the country and the political leadership are not behind the troops. Third, opportunities are everywhere. Within one year of graduating, I was receiving job offers for 4 years down the line paying me >100K. Finally, the army is not doing anything to retain us. I don’t mean that what they’re doing isn’t appealing, but that nothing is being done.
I am the son of a Grad, and have 3 uncles and both grandfathers who are retired army. When I was commissioned I never thought about anything but staying in for a career. However, the atmosphere is bad and there are no incentives to stay in.
Walk a mile in our shoes before you make judgments...