Army drawdown continues: 1,100 captains to be cut

angelburst29

The Living Force
In the Arm Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, etc.), it was my understanding (maybe in error) that you could work your way up to get promoted. or demoted if you screwed up or some times transferred and in a worse case scenario - Court Marshaled. But Pink-slipped? Do they lose their Benefits and Healthcare coverage after serving their Country, many in a War Zone? I can't make any sense out of this "draw-down of Army Personnel?" My impression was that you always built up Army positions, for they were the first on the scene in any conflict, with the Marine's behind them on the ground and Navy/Air Force coverage for Sea and Air? Foreign Countries like China, North Korea, Russia and even Israel count their Army Reserves in the "Million's" and the U.S. wants to hold the line to 450,000 troops?

Army drawdown continues: 1,100 captains to be cut
_http://www.stripes.com/news/army-drawdown-continues-1-100-captains-to-be-cut-1.290104

(This article is back-dated to June 22, 2014)
WASHINGTON — The Army drawdown continues this week, when about 1,100 Army captains will receive word that their military careers are about to end. Another 500 majors will get the same news in early July.

The cuts were planned by officer separation and early retirement boards that convened this spring to review 19,000 active-duty officers for possible early separation. It’s all part of the Army’s effort to smoothly trim down to a number that, thanks to federal budgetary uncertainty, remains unclear.

There were about 28,000 captains and nearly 17,000 majors in the Army on April 30, according to Defense Department statistics.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell, who sat down with Stars and Stripes recently to discuss Army end-strength cuts, said the separations aren’t something anyone wanted. Good officers who’ve risked their lives to serve the nation will have to leave, he said.

“They’re in the Army now, and in other times they’d probably continue to stay in the Army,” he said. “But this is not normal times.”

During the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army had about 570,000 troops and has since dropped to about 510,000. The current cuts, which also include 500 noncommissioned officers selected early this year for separation, are aimed at producing an end strength of 490,000 troops — the Army’s previous target.

But the force will almost certainly get smaller. The most recent defense budget proposal from the Pentagon, now working its way through Congress, calls for an Army of some 450,000 soldiers.

Should automatic budget cuts known as sequestration return in 2016 after two years on hold because of a bipartisan budget deal, 420,000 troops will be the target end strength, officials say. Campbell and other Army leaders say that such a deep cut would be risky enough to require an overhaul of the nation’s defense strategy. However it plays out, many more troops will have to leave.

“This will be a continuing effort as we go forward,” Campbell said.

Even as the Army plans for continued drawdowns, certain fields — including cyberwarfare, special operations and missile defense — have grown, he said. The service branch’s leaders are looking hard at areas for offsetting cuts, Campbell said.

Among them are Army educational institutions and Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, he said. Other areas that may be ripe for reductions are Army Medical Command, brigade combat teams — which have already been cut significantly — and enabling functions such as logistics units, he said.

The Army is focused on moving troops to civilian life as compassionately as possible, Campbell said. Some of the most difficult notifications, he said, could be to officers now commanding troops in Afghanistan.

“Just think, if you’re a young captain … you’ve been in the army four to eight years, you could be a company commander who commanded in combat, and now somebody’s going to come up and say, ‘Hey, thanks for your service,’ ” he said. “It’s going to be a shock.”

Most of the captains who receive notice this week will receive separation pay, while a few have accumulated enough time in the service to qualify for early retirement.

The Army hopes to move many into the Army Reserve ranks.

“We think about two-thirds of those who are selected would be great candidates to go into the reserve component,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Seamands, director of Army personnel management. “The reserve component shortages are actually captains and midgrade NCOs, so it would improve readiness in the reserve forces.”

The 1,100 captains will remain in the service until April 1 and can use the intervening time to prepare their families, retrain and look for work in the civilian world, Campbell said. Support for transition is available through the Army’s “Soldier for Life” program, instituted by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno in 2012, he said.

“They’ll have nearly 10 months to transition, to get their finances and their families ready, all the things they need to do to get a smooth takeoff as they leave the service,” Campbell said. “They’ll have almost a year to get ready for that.”


Army: Of 1,100 captains pink-slipped, 48 were in Afghanistan
_http://www.stripes.com/news/us/army-of-1-100-captains-pink-slipped-48-were-in-afghanistan-1.294900

Wednesday July 23, 2014 - WASHINGTON — Of the more than 1,100 Army captains notified last month their military careers would soon end, 87 were deployed worldwide and 48 were serving in Afghanistan at the time, Army officials said Wednesday.

The Army has been talking for months about the need to separate the captains as well as more than 500 majors this summer as part of the broad Army drawdown, but it’s the first time details have emerged about the sobering business of delivering pink slips to troops in harm’s way.


The separations have become an issue on Capitol Hill, with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., questioning ISAF commander Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford about it during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week.

“Obviously that has to have an effect on the morale of our officer corps,” McCain said. “A serious blow, I would think.”

Dunford, who was answering questions during a hearing on his nomination to become Marine Corps Commandant, agreed.

“Absolutely, and probably more importantly, senator, than the officer corps is the message it sends to young soldiers whose company commander is forced to redeploy as a result of a reduction in force,” Dunford said.

Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is urging the Senate to act, having learned of the situation only after the House had passed its defense spending bill

Cotton, a former Army infantry officer with a tour each in Iraq and Afghanistan, wants senators to introduce an amendment that would deny funding of the distribution of pink slips in Afghanistan.

“The men and women deployed overseas have left their homes and families to fight for our country,” he said in a written statement. “It’s deplorable the Obama administration would treat them this way. This action is yet another shameful display of President Obama’s disregard for our country’s warfighters.”

According to Army officials who spoke Wednesday on the condition of anonymity, deployed troops who receive separation notices return to the United States as quickly as possible. For staff officers, that can happen within days, while others who wield more authority, like company commanders, may need up to 30 days to wrap up their assignments and return.

The 500 to 550 majors will receive word of their impending separations in late July or early August, officials said. Further early retirement and officer selection boards could be announced for late this year and early next year, an Army official said. Those notified have nine months to transition out of the active duty Army, and many are expected to continue in the Army Reserve.


Somewhere between 800 and 900 NCOs are likely to be selected for separation in 2015 as brigade combat teams are inactivated, another official said. About 500 were selected early this year.

The Army intends to shrink to an active duty end strength of 510,000 troops this year and fall to 490,000 in 2015, officials said. From there, end strength will likely fall by another 40,000 by 2019 as a result of declining military spending. If elected officials don’t find a way to forestall automatic budget cuts known as sequestration scheduled to return in 2016, Army leaders say the active force will fall to 420,000.
 
Hi,
Was it in the "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein or in documentary about Hugo Chavez by Oliver Stone? That Blackwater is growing so, that currently on one soldier there is more than one coroprate soldier. Guess it is much easier for governement without conciense to have profesional killers being there for only good wage and not because some ideological reasons.
 
Avala said:
Maybe a sign that the USA is going down economically. Army costs money.

Or they are firing normal human beings and keeping the psychopaths in the top leading positions...
 
I've red somewhere that US Army is considered TOO patriotic (for PTB and one world government?) and that process of its dissolving is already running for some time (since Iraq)... If there will be no sovereign nations than there is no place for national armies either. Just mega-corporate Academi, et al, privateer armies....
 
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