Paul Burke
Registered User
The Recent Change in Application Requirements
I saw this post on military.com and thought I'd share it here for those who do not frequent that site. This post explains quite a bit about the recent changes in the application requirements. Made me really wonder about the long term effects to the Navy.
More sailors re-enlist
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All of a sudden, it seems hardly anyone wants to leave the Navy. More than 70 percent of first-term sailors eligible to get out of the service in March decided to stay in. That may be a record, and it's prompting service leaders to scale back recruiting dramatically. Pentagon officials believe the soaring re-enlistment rate is the payoff from a series of major pay and benefit increases, perhaps aided by a surge in patriotic spirit. That combination has apparently persuaded thousands of Navy and other armed forces personnel to extend their time in uniform, officials said last week. While the services scramble to deal with a torrent of current members who want to re-enlist, officials are pondering whether they should slow down recruiting.
One branch, the Navy, already has taken that step; it has trimmed its recruiting target for 2002 by more than 10 percent, or 5,500 sailors. The other services say they may follow suit, or they could force back to civilian life some members who wanted to extend their service. By law, each military branch has a manpower ceiling. There's strong support in Congress to raise those limits this year, despite opposition by the Bush administration. The House Armed Services Committee last week endorsed an increase of about 12,000 troops, about 1 percent.
According to Navy data, the re-enlistment rate among sailors finishing their first term of service is running at 65 percent for the year, 8 points above the service's target. In March, first-term Navy re-enlistments hit 71 percent. That's the highest that Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, can recall in his 30-plus years of service, he proudly told senators last week.
Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, the Navy's top personnel official, described the retention figures Friday as a vote of confidence from the current force. Just three years ago, Navy retention had hit near-record lows. ``The last three years, we've delivered the beef,'' Ryan asserted. Not only has basic pay increased, he said, the Navy has added $50 million annually to personnel accounts to provide the first boost in sea pay since the 1980s. The Navy also has attacked practices that drove many of its youngest members from the service even before their first terms expired, Ryan said. General-detail sailors, the paint-chippers and bilge-cleaners who are traditionally most likely to leave early, were getting extra attention and encouragement to stick around, he said.
In one pilot program, ``gendets'' destined for assignment to ships in the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt battle group are being identified in boot camp and getting visits there from Roosevelt officers and enlisted leaders. ``It lets them know . . . they're wanted, they're needed,'' Ryan said. The Navy also is promising those sailors that they'll be groomed while on deployment to qualify for one of its specialized training programs, so that after 18 to 24 months as a gendet, they'll be able to move into more appealing jobs, he added.
Ryan said the Navy also improved advancement opportunities for senior enlisted members. That gives more experienced chief petty officers an incentive to stick around longer, he said. Ryan said Navy leaders believe sailors have a greater sense of mission in the aftermath of Sept. 11, leading more to re-enlist. They ``now understand that the mission is just as important as people told'' them, he said. Spokesmen in other services say they sense a similar feeling, though it has yet to be quantified. The sluggishness in the civilian economy also may be helping to encourage service members to remain in uniform, they suggested. But Air Force, Marine Corps and Army officials say they have no plans to reduce recruiting. Marine and Army spokesmen suggested that because so much of the current force wants to re-up, personnel officers may become more selective about just who is allowed to do so. The Air Force is retaining almost everyone _ by law. The service imposed ``stop-loss'' restrictions on virtually all its members soon after Sept. 11, automatically extending the terms of thousands of airmen. A spokeswoman said Friday that a few of those restrictions have been lifted but most others remain. The Navy ordered stop-loss for some of its most specialized jobs last fall, but has since removed them. ``We're still hiring,'' said Brig. Gen. Duane Deal, the Air Force's top recruiter. His command will spend $90 million on marketing this year, he said, and because the Air Force has operated in recent years at less than its authorized strength, it has room to keep recruiting briskly even while holding onto most of its present force. Meanwhile, the expected rush of civilians to recruiting offices after Sept. 11 never materialized, officials said. ``There was a big propensity to wave the flag, but not necessarily to wear it,'' Deal said. With a full five months left in the federal fiscal year, the Air Force already has hit its 2002 recruiting goal of 37,283, Deal said. Recruiters now are looking for high school graduates to sign contracts that would bring them into the force in 2003. Navy recruiting also is continuing, Ryan said, though the service has reduced its force of recruiters to 4,500, a 10 percent drop, and is channeling more of its $81 million advertising budget dollars into the Internet.
MMCM(SS) Greg Peterman USN Retired
I saw this post on military.com and thought I'd share it here for those who do not frequent that site. This post explains quite a bit about the recent changes in the application requirements. Made me really wonder about the long term effects to the Navy.
More sailors re-enlist
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of a sudden, it seems hardly anyone wants to leave the Navy. More than 70 percent of first-term sailors eligible to get out of the service in March decided to stay in. That may be a record, and it's prompting service leaders to scale back recruiting dramatically. Pentagon officials believe the soaring re-enlistment rate is the payoff from a series of major pay and benefit increases, perhaps aided by a surge in patriotic spirit. That combination has apparently persuaded thousands of Navy and other armed forces personnel to extend their time in uniform, officials said last week. While the services scramble to deal with a torrent of current members who want to re-enlist, officials are pondering whether they should slow down recruiting.
One branch, the Navy, already has taken that step; it has trimmed its recruiting target for 2002 by more than 10 percent, or 5,500 sailors. The other services say they may follow suit, or they could force back to civilian life some members who wanted to extend their service. By law, each military branch has a manpower ceiling. There's strong support in Congress to raise those limits this year, despite opposition by the Bush administration. The House Armed Services Committee last week endorsed an increase of about 12,000 troops, about 1 percent.
According to Navy data, the re-enlistment rate among sailors finishing their first term of service is running at 65 percent for the year, 8 points above the service's target. In March, first-term Navy re-enlistments hit 71 percent. That's the highest that Adm. Vern Clark, the chief of naval operations, can recall in his 30-plus years of service, he proudly told senators last week.
Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, the Navy's top personnel official, described the retention figures Friday as a vote of confidence from the current force. Just three years ago, Navy retention had hit near-record lows. ``The last three years, we've delivered the beef,'' Ryan asserted. Not only has basic pay increased, he said, the Navy has added $50 million annually to personnel accounts to provide the first boost in sea pay since the 1980s. The Navy also has attacked practices that drove many of its youngest members from the service even before their first terms expired, Ryan said. General-detail sailors, the paint-chippers and bilge-cleaners who are traditionally most likely to leave early, were getting extra attention and encouragement to stick around, he said.
In one pilot program, ``gendets'' destined for assignment to ships in the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt battle group are being identified in boot camp and getting visits there from Roosevelt officers and enlisted leaders. ``It lets them know . . . they're wanted, they're needed,'' Ryan said. The Navy also is promising those sailors that they'll be groomed while on deployment to qualify for one of its specialized training programs, so that after 18 to 24 months as a gendet, they'll be able to move into more appealing jobs, he added.
Ryan said the Navy also improved advancement opportunities for senior enlisted members. That gives more experienced chief petty officers an incentive to stick around longer, he said. Ryan said Navy leaders believe sailors have a greater sense of mission in the aftermath of Sept. 11, leading more to re-enlist. They ``now understand that the mission is just as important as people told'' them, he said. Spokesmen in other services say they sense a similar feeling, though it has yet to be quantified. The sluggishness in the civilian economy also may be helping to encourage service members to remain in uniform, they suggested. But Air Force, Marine Corps and Army officials say they have no plans to reduce recruiting. Marine and Army spokesmen suggested that because so much of the current force wants to re-up, personnel officers may become more selective about just who is allowed to do so. The Air Force is retaining almost everyone _ by law. The service imposed ``stop-loss'' restrictions on virtually all its members soon after Sept. 11, automatically extending the terms of thousands of airmen. A spokeswoman said Friday that a few of those restrictions have been lifted but most others remain. The Navy ordered stop-loss for some of its most specialized jobs last fall, but has since removed them. ``We're still hiring,'' said Brig. Gen. Duane Deal, the Air Force's top recruiter. His command will spend $90 million on marketing this year, he said, and because the Air Force has operated in recent years at less than its authorized strength, it has room to keep recruiting briskly even while holding onto most of its present force. Meanwhile, the expected rush of civilians to recruiting offices after Sept. 11 never materialized, officials said. ``There was a big propensity to wave the flag, but not necessarily to wear it,'' Deal said. With a full five months left in the federal fiscal year, the Air Force already has hit its 2002 recruiting goal of 37,283, Deal said. Recruiters now are looking for high school graduates to sign contracts that would bring them into the force in 2003. Navy recruiting also is continuing, Ryan said, though the service has reduced its force of recruiters to 4,500, a 10 percent drop, and is channeling more of its $81 million advertising budget dollars into the Internet.
MMCM(SS) Greg Peterman USN Retired