Army Chief of Staff Casey: 'Quality is down from where it was a few years ago'; Says 15-month deployments edge of 'break point' for officer retention

Above: U.S. Army recruits practice patrol tactics while marching during U.S. Army basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina last December.

The demands placed on the Army by the task of sustaining an all-volunteer force during wartime has got the chief of staff worrying about crossing the “invisible red line”...

“Quality is down from where it was a few years ago,” Casey acknowledged, adding “but we are right at the [Defense Department] policy goals” for new recruits...

Meanwhile, the experienced soldiers the Army has groomed for more than a decade to become the mid-career captains, majors and noncommissioned officers are making personal decisions to leave the Army in greater numbers...

“The problem is, it’s all about people, it’s about people making personal decisions. Some people think the [decision to extend rotations to] 15-months... was that break point. I don’t think so. If we had to increase it to 18 or 24 months, that would be an impact, that could do it,” Casey said.

Read the rest at Army Times

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