01 December 2005

Generally, Texas Guard faces a lack of mid-level officers

By Sig Christenson
San Antonio Express-News, 26 November 2005.

Busier than it's been in 65 years, the Texas Army National Guard is seriously short of mid-level officers, with a third fewer captains than it needs, and forced to siphon some from units that remain at home to meet its commitments overseas, its commander said.

Lt. Gen. Charles G. Rodriguez said the problem is rooted in having failed to develop lieutenants over the past decade or so, not because of protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"There are going to be tired and frustrated people. That's always the case. Whether we have many more -- well, that's going to come out in our retention statistics," Rodriguez said. "Right now they're very strong."

The problem with captains goes beyond the Texas Guard, which last year was short by 442 officers -- most of them captains, first lieutenants and second lieutenants.

It also has rippled through the Army and the Army Reserve, which along with the Guard has carried much of the burden of occupying Iraq.

No one yet knows how last year's large-scale deployment of Texans to Iraq will impact the Guard's ability to keep enough veterans in uniform. Those troops will be home in just two weeks, but it will take months more to know if they'll re-up in large numbers or get out.

So far, the Texas Guard has met its retention and recruiting goals. But the Army Reserve, a cog in Gulf War II, has endured an extreme shortage of lieutenants and captains. A year ago it, needed 5,580 company-grade officers but fell short of that goal by a third. Current figures aren't available.

The uncertainty over troop retention comes at the worst time, as the Pentagon turns more and more to Texas and other states for Guard members in hopes of backing up a thin, war-weary line of active-duty troops who have served two and even three tours of Iraq.

Texans were mobilized in 9-11's wake to protect airports and vulnerable facilities such as nuclear plants. The Texas Army Guard, which has 16,330 troops -- the most of any state -- has since deployed soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq. Five have died, all in Iraq.

Comings and goings

All but a few of the 3,500 soldiers with the Guard's 56th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq are to return home by Dec. 10, when a homecoming is planned at 2 p.m. at Baylor University. Another 700 troops in Afghanistan should be in Texas by summer.

As troops fought in both countries, 4,000 soldiers at home were ordered to duty for more than two months as hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in succession, straining troops, supplies and equipment.

"We call it Katrita, because it went from one to the next for us," said Col. Bill Meehan, the Texas Guard's chief spokesman.

The Guard deployed 1,200 soldiers to Kosovo and Bosnia after a sendoff ceremony Friday at Baylor's Ferrell Center. Another 400 will head to Egypt's Sinai Desert in early January for a yearlong peacekeeping tour.

Rodriguez conceded he doesn't know how tours in Iraq and Afghanistan will impact retention and recruiting for the Texas Guard.

The Army, Army Reserve and National Guard have struggled to sign up new recruits. The Guard and Reserve fell short, as did the Army, where all 41 recruiting battalions in the United States and Europe this year failed to meet their quota.

The Army met its goal of enlisting 80,000 recruits by dramatically increasing the number of enlistees who posted low scores on its entrance exam. The Army has coped with the shortage of lieutenants and captains by reducing the time an officer must serve before becoming a captain.

The impact of Iraq and Afghan deployments on the Guard is hard to gauge. The San Antonio Express-News asked several Guard organizations that have deployed large numbers of troops to Iraq or Afghanistan to provide retention data. Only four responded, and none of the organizations provided complete information.

Just under 10 percent of Texas Guard career soldiers failed to re-enlist prior to their first overseas deployment, Rodriguez said. He attributed the dip "to natural apprehensions shared with family members," and noted that younger, first-term enlistees were not affected.

One in four may leave

Rodriguez expects to see one in four Texans leave the Guard. He plans to conduct command climate surveys when troops with the 56th Brigade Combat Team and others return. Those surveys gauge the mood of each unit, with the information forwarded to the adjutant general. He pledged to release a synopsis of the surveys when they are completed in six months to a year.

Retention appeared strong in Arkansas, where soldiers were posted in Iraq last year. Nine of 10 soldiers who went to Iraq re-upped, but there was no breakdown for troops completing their first tour of duty and veterans who have logged multiple tours in uniform.

Washington state's Army National Guard's commanders had been prepared to lose some of its veterans as 4,300 Army and Air Guard troops returned from the Middle East, most based in Iraq. But Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton said that hasn't occurred in the Army Guard, which lost 10 soldiers.

A GAO report said Reserve retention fell from 67 percent five years ago to 40 percent in 2003. It saw drop-offs in Guard aviation personnel, and surveys show that half of Army Guard respondents on active duty would remain in uniform.

The National Guard's commander, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, disputed the reports, saying retention is higher among the 250,000 troops called to duty since 9-11 than for those who were not.

But military sociologist David Segal, who studies the military at the University of Maryland, is dubious about the rosy retention reports.

He said he has tried to get re-enlistment rates from the services for the past two months but instead has been given "continuation rates" -- the number of soldiers on duty last year who still are serving. That, however, is different from re-enlistment rates because it includes soldiers whose terms of enlistment weren't set to end.

"I think the numbers they are presenting are real, but the interpretation of them is not what people think it is," Segal said. "I think they're trying to make things look as positive as possible."

Guard and Reserve units have particularly struggled amid an exodus of captains, a critical mid-level officer position. Often in their mid- to late 20s, captains typically lead companies and oversee as many as 350 soldiers.

The Army said its attrition rate last year was up from an average of 7.3 to 8.5 percent. But it was worse in the Reserve, which the Seattle Times reported had 8,583 captains -- about 59 percent of the target. The National Guard has encountered similar problems, though Blum said they aren't as severe.

"Anytime you have commitments time and time again for an organization which really isn't structured to respond to long-term continuous commitments, except in the case of a catastrophic war like one against the Soviet Union, it's bound to have an effect," said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor, an MSNBC analyst and a combat commander in Korea and Vietnam.

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Citation: Sig Christenson. "Generally, Texas Guard faces a lack of mid-level officers," San Antonio Express-News, 26 November 2005.
Original URL: www.mysanantonio.com/
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