Staying the Course
Written by Diana McGonigle
PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO RETAIN OFFICERS.
“It came to the attention of the Army that, due to Army growth, the strength of officers, particularly at the grade of captain or major, was going to be substantially short of what we needed to grow the Army to, in this case, 547,000,” said Colonel Paul Aswell, Chief of the Officer Division of the Army G1, which is the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Army Headquarters.
“Indeed, we were going to be about 6,000 additional captains and majors more than what we had planned for. But like anything else, we can see that a number like 6,000 doesn’t sound like a lot when you have an army of 547,000. But because it takes so long for an officer get experience enough to reach those grades and it takes a major 10 years to reach major. That’s a real problem to try to generate those officers.”
Aswell, who manages officer policy and officer programs, explained that the Army tried to attack this problem in two ways. The first way was to bring in officers who are not in the army, like reservists—700—and 400 officers from the other services. The Army also began taking in more lieutenants and keeping the lieutenants that were brought in by offering them some incentives like graduate school, post of choice or their assignment branch of choice.
“But it still wasn’t enough, Aswell said. “What we found was that by FY10, that is October 2009, we’d still be short by about 4,500 we needed in spite of all the other measures that we were doing.”
The Army is at or below the normal attrition rate this year. The average attrition for the last few years has been 12.2 percent. When captains reach the end of their active duty service obligation, they typically leave.
“Most officers leave the Army. That’s just the way it is,” Aswell said. “The Army does not need a whole bunch of generals and colonels. They need a lot of lieutenants, they need a lot of captains. We typically lose down into the 45 to 46 percent range after six to eight years of service. It’s not unusual and it’s healthy for the army. It allows the officers who are dedicated and want a career in the Army to stay. In the face of this shortage of captains, it is a problem.”
The Army developed a menu of incentives, effective September 13, 2007, to increase retention among officers with specific skills and experiences. Five incentive options are available to officers who meet the eligibility criteria: a three-tiered critical skills retention bonus—$25,000, $30,000 and $35,000—graduate school, military school, branch/functional area of choice or post of choice.
The Army surveyed 2,500 officers and the two biggest incentives were found to be graduate school and a bonus, according to Aswell. This article looks at the graduate school incentive. “The graduate school, because that was something we could start early on—we started that a little over a year ago—and we’ve been offering that for some time,” Aswell said. “We have gotten quite a few officers already to sign up to extend their service obligation in exchange for graduate school training. Typically, between 2000 and 2006 the Army trained 424 captains and majors for advanced degrees each year, average. But that will be 900 next year and by FY11 it will be 1,200 a year. So you can see that for a lot of officers that was a big choice, and they decided to do that.”
In the old system there was the Expanded Graduate School Program that was almost exclusively tied to Army requirements. There were liberal arts, technical, scientific and engineering degrees that were all tied to a specific job. For example, over half of them were for educational requirements, where officers would go get a graduate degree and be instructors at the military academy.
“From FY08 to FY11, those degrees are not tied to anything except for the development of the officer,” Aswell said. “In other words it’s based on the officer’s desires, and it is a list of just about every kind of degree you can imagine. It has to be approved, but I could not think of a degree that does not fit in there. It’s purely to provide the Army with a more rounded officer who’s more culturally aware, perhaps, or educated in their chosen field. There is no requirement for a specific degree except, as I mentioned earlier, a list of hundreds of degrees that’s out there. Just about any degree you can imagine is on that list.
“If they earn a degree in public administration or English or electrical engineering they’re not expected to serve a tour as an electrical engineer. Whereas before if you were going to get that degree it was because you were going after that job. For example we would have public affairs officers go to get a communications degree, and then they would go in that field. That would not be the case with this expanded program.”
According to the retention memo, the graduate school retention incentive will be executed under the Expanded Graduate School Program (see MAE 2.4, page 13). Due to limited availability, priority for graduate school slots will be given to captains with a date of rank between January 1, 2006 and November 1, 2007. This menu of incentives option provides officers the ability to earn a high-quality graduate degree (12-18 Months) and return for a follow-on utilization assignment in a key developmental position. Officers approved for this option agree to an active duty service obligation (ADSO) of three days for every one day spent in the program upon graduation or termination from the program.
ELIGIBILITY AND EXECUTION
- Officers must have a minimum undergraduate grade point average of 3.0 and submit a copy of their transcript along with the officer retention menu of incentives contract.
- Officers will generally begin graduate school attendance between their eighth and 12th year of service.
- Officers will only attend an accredited U.S. graduate school.
- Officers are required to study in an approved discipline that enhances the competencies required in an expeditionary army—emphasizing cultural awareness, regional knowledge, foreign language, governance, diplomacy, national security or social sciences that reinforce operational skills. A complete listing of approved disciplines is available on the ACS web page at: https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/ protect/active/opfamacs/acs14.htm.
- Officers must hold a current secret clearance or higher. The Army’s current advanced civil schooling program will continue to support Army requirements with the technical disciplines required for the specified specialty or position. Officers will attend an accredited U.S. graduate school from among the list of schools that meet Army parameters—either an Army sponsored graduate school program or a university in the EGSP cost category.
Exceptions to the program or university or discipline list must be requested by memorandum to Chief, Advanced Civil Schooling prior to final approval of application in the year of attendance. Officers who already possess a master’s degree that was not fully funded by the Army may select this option as long as the degree is not the same as the projected graduate degree under this program. Officers who have attended a previous Army fully funded or scholarship graduate program are not eligible.
Officers must not be competing for or been selected for any other Army-sponsored graduate program, fellowship, scholarship or training- with-industry program.
The full menu of incentives is available to regular army captains initially accessed on active duty in the following basic branches: air defense, adjutant general, armor, aviation, chemical, engineer, field artillery, finance, infantry, military intelligence, military police, ordnance, quartermaster, signal, and transportation with a date of rank (to captain) of April 1, 2002 through November 1, 2007 who have not been considered for promotion to major in the primary zone, or have not been selected for below-the-zone promotion to major. Officers who have been considered in the primary zone for promotion to major but were not selected are not eligible. YG04 Army competitive category officers in the grade of first lieutenant may apply for an option upon promotion to captain. Officers approved to receive one of the incentive options accept an additional ADSO that will start upon completion of their current ADSO or the date their contract is approved by the retention branch chief, whichever is later.
Some specialties already have an incentive in place. Army nurses and select medical service corps regular Army captains in medical function areas, health services or behavioral sciences, with a date of rank April 2, 2002 through November 1, 2007 who have not been considered for promotion to major in the primary zone, or have not been selected for below-the-zone promotion to major are only eligible for the Critical Skills Retention Bonus.
Warrant officers, Army Reserve /National Guard officers and officers currently assigned to or controlled by the Judge Advocate General’s Corps are not eligible to participate in this program. This includes officers who were originally commissioned in the above basic branches but have since signed a contract to be enrolled in the funded legal education program.
Eligible officers may select only one option from the menu. Eligibility is subject to change based on army requirements, budget limitations, and other factors. Officers who elect to participate in this program will incur an additional active duty service obligation (ADSO).
Officers requesting one of the options must meet Army height and weight standards, must not be pending any adverse action, must have not been found guilty of a previous uniformed code of military justice violation, and must meet eligibility criteria for the chosen option.
“This is an unprecedented program,” Aswell concluded. “It is such an interesting time in our nation’s history to be talking about this, because these are young men and women who have been asked… 80 percent of them have been deployed into combat. And we’re asking them to stay. To date they have done very, very well, in just the few weeks the program has been in place just over 30 percent of the eligibles have applied [to all of the programs].
“It is very encouraging to me that our officer corps is so committed to service that they would participate in this program and stay when they would otherwise normally leave. You need to be proud of your Army for that.” ♦
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