“Our promotion rates are less than they were when we were growing the Army,” McConville said. “We’re running about 10 percent below normal at the company-grade level and about 20 percent to 25 percent below normal at the field-grade level.”
McConville said he expects promotion rates to “slowly move up” as the Army conducts more early retirement boards for colonels and lieutenant colonels. – Defense News
Besides the obvious of downsizing the Army while the country is still actively engaged militarily overseas, the downsize will also have other drawbacks. Soldiers will have to more closely manage their own records and career in order to stay in a deployable status. Promotions might be scarce further down the road and lateral movement might also be difficult since there will be less positions available.
SMA Dailey: Unacceptable when the best people in an MOS can’t be promoted because there are no positions available. #AUSA2016 #USArmy pic.twitter.com/8PbEJvXZL7
— U.S. Army TRADOC (@TRADOC) October 4, 2016
Voluntary early retirement and separation for seasoned commissioned and non-commissioned officers will mean a loss of knowledge and experience. The Army will lose battle tested leaders and people who have served their country honorably, which is what Lt. Gen. James McConville said is the hardest part about the downsize.
“For me, in this job, one of the most difficult things that we have to do is ask soldiers that have served honorably during a time of conflict to leave the service. We really don’t want to do that, but the drawdown numbers force us to do that.”
You can read the full Defense News article HERE
Image courtesy of US Army
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