Who will lead FY-2006's 80,000 new soldiers?
Our Army may have made its annual recruiting quota of 80,000 new soldiers for FY-2006, but who is going to lead them?According to IRR Soldier, our Army is short 3,500 officers in the active-duty force and about 10,550 lieutenants and captains in the Army Reserve. The selection rate for civilians to Army OCS has been 100% for the last 26 months. This is not a good sign of things to come.
Army Times just published an article (25SEP06, p. 20, not free) on difficulties in recruiting minority officers through West Point and ROTC. They didn't mention OCS. In the photo above, however, you see what appears to be a well-qualified, and minority/female, college graduate who wants to serve her country. [After all, the Public Affairs Officers even picked her to be FY-2006's 80,000th recruit.] However, we'd be just as concerned if this recruit were a white male.
We asked USAREC Public Affairs and the New York City area Recruiting Battalion October 1 whether Specialist (E-4) Shirley Salvi, a Rutgers University graduate, was qualified for OCS and, if so, whether her recruiter discussed OCS with her. They have not replied.
We agree with this blog that this is a tragedy. It's a short-term outlook of recruiting numbers rather than doing the right thing for the Army and this patriot.
UPDATE: Here are the final FY-2006 recruiting statistics.
posted by Karl @ 10/05/2006 03:17:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
If she has a 4 year college degree, then she is qualified. But in the end it is her choice whether she wants to lead or not.
djtyg-
You are quite correct. We've been asking whether she was advised of her options, and whether she, in fact, made a choice.
We've asked this exact question of U.S. Army Recruiting Command at various levels. They haven't replied.
We've concluded that (1) she was/is qualified for OCS and (2) she was NOT advised of this option.
Actually, 90 credit hours qualifies an individual to apply to OCS. Recruits are not being asked if they would like to go to the Benning School for Wayward Boys and Girls because they want the numbers that look good on the nightly news and make the war effort appear more palatable. (People are still willing to step up and put their boots on the ground.)
I have been harping on the Honor Code over at my site and just a few minutes ago posted about the dearth of Officers in the Army.
I have a long military tradition. My husband is a retired USAF Major, my brother retired a Lt. Colonel, and my father retired from the USN a Chief Petty Officer. Other relatives are still serving, and I just might go myself.
The yellow elephants sure as hell aren't going to. And they would be ill suited to restore the Honor Code anyway.
Dumb question: They recruited their 80,000th person in the year.
How many left the military to go onto civilian life? 81,000? 79,000? Is the military still behind? What about the 7000 recruits deficit from last year?
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