Young Officers Leaving Army at a High Rate
WASHINGTON, April 9 — Young Army officers, including growing numbers of captains who leave as soon as their initial commitment is fulfilled, are bailing out of active-duty service at rates that have alarmed senior officers. Last year, more than a third of the West Point class of 2000 left active duty at the earliest possible moment, after completing their five-year obligation.
Yikes. Sounds troubling, right? Except, we learn later in the article:
In 2001, but before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 9.3 percent of the Army's young officers left active duty at their first opportunity. By 2002, the number of those junior officers leaving at their first opportunity dropped to 7.1 percent, and in 2003, only 6.3 percent opted out. But the number grew to 8.3 percent in 2004 and 8.6 percent in 2005.
So, in summary, shortly after the 9/11 attacks the number of officers leaving the service plummeted, yet now as we get further away from 9/11 and some of the patriotic feelings wear off retention levels are going back to where they were pre-9/11.
Why is this cause for concern? Obviously, it is something the Army needs to be aware of (the article states that the Army is indeed increasing incentives to help keep officers enlisted), but we are still keeping more officers enlisted now after three years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan than we were before 9/11. This, to me, seems like another shoddy attempt to take something that is a non-issue and twist it into yet another negative story to demoralize Americans who support the mission in Iraq.
Which, of course, is nothing new. This is a tactic the media has tried again and again. Which is unfortunate. Not all Americans have the time to invest into understanding the war in Iraq and all of its subtleties. Most of them rely on journalists to provide them with an accurate picture of how things are going, yet with the media engaging in deceptive reporting (not to mention deceptive photography) Americans get the wrong impression. Which is unfortunate in a democracy like ours. The people pick the leaders in this country, but when the people have an obfuscated view of reality they tend to make the wrong decisions.