With the recent drawdowns should the Army allow individuals an opportunity to get out of their contract and leave honorably?
Army
Military Career
Development
NCOs
Officers
The military tried this approach post-Gulf War...turned out they met their new end strengths quickly, but ultimately depleted both the NCO and officer corps for years.
We cannot always pick and choose who we want to lead...it's not a perfect world.
To piggy back off of your comment, MSG Quick:
We all know a few less than stellar Soldiers at all levels who would wish to remain in the military. If there was a vaccuum of Soldier leadership due to a mass exodus of some of the more talented Soldiers, these Soldiers could end up being the ones picking up the slack by taking on leadership roles they are not ready for or do not have the talent for.
I understand the initial "wow" factor of the simplicity of the idea of permitting voluntary resignation and discharge, especially with the news of the past couple of days regarding the downsizing. However, I think we could find ourselves in a manning nightmare just due to the uneven nature we would lose people. Some ranks and/or MOSs could become overly depleted, while others could still have an excess. It definitely would not permit for a controlled force shaping effort which will be key in the downsizing.
It's a double edged sword, on one hand we want only the motivated to stay and pursue a professional career and on the other hand we don't want to lose massive amounts of experience.
I think there should be a program to offer "early out", where a soldier is obviously not a good fit for the military lifestyle but hasn't committed any offenses to warrant ucmj and chapter. They're not bad people, they just weren't meant to pursue this lifestyle and career.
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