Anyone who has ever served in the military has inevitably been asked the question, “why did you join?” The normal responses include “because I wanted to serve my country;” “because I wanted to be a part of something greater than myself;” “because I needed money for college;” “to see the world…” Although I can identify with some, if not all, of these answers, I have had trouble answering the question for myself. I suppose I could validate my decision to join the Army with some deep intrinsic “call to service” that motivates me, but sometimes I still have trouble rationalizing that concept in my own mind. I am now faced with deciding to continue my service to the United States military or to start something new.
Almost nine years ago, as a confused high school senior, I was conducting a college visit when I came across a table for the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Someone behind the table asked me if I had ever thought about joining ROTC. Not knowing anything about what it was, I promptly answered, “No thanks.”
My father brought it up later and I realized I had no better idea or plan, so I decided to see what it was about. I learned that ROTC would pay me to go to college for four years and then guarantee me a full-time job as an Army officer upon graduation. Needless to say, that offer didn’t seem like a bad one. Long story short, four years later I was handed a bachelor’s degree and had a couple of gold bars pinned to my shoulders as a newly commissioned second lieutenant. This accomplishment was the proudest moment in my life.
Throughout the Army officer accessions process there are numerous opportunities to incur Additional Service Obligations (ADSO). Essentially, this means adding time to a military contract in order to get a certain, job, school, post, etc. I was not keen on binding myself to additional service in an organization that I hadn’t even spent one day formally serving in. I know fellow ROTC graduates that, on their first day in the U.S. Army were signed up to serve ten or more years. I wanted to have the ability to walk away after my four years were up; it’s been 3 years and 6 months.
According to the Army Regulation for Officer Transfers and Discharges, if you would like to request a Release from Active Duty (REFRAD), you should do so between six and 12 months before the date you would like to exit the Army. It’s down to the wire, but I could turn my REFRAD packet in today. Six months from now, I could take my uniform off for the last time. The decision that I am faced with is the same as that of thousands of other junior officers that have completed their initial active duty obligation. I am no special case. I just figured that writing down some of my thoughts would help stimulate a better informed decision.
The past almost eight years of my life in the Army (including ROTC) have provided me with a whirlwind of experiences that I won’t ever forget. Geographically speaking, the Army has taken me to places that I would otherwise have never considered visiting — in Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere. I will forever be thankful for these opportunities. The amount of practical work experience and the opportunities to lead American soldiers are things that I will always consider a great privilege.
I have always viewed my time in the Army as service to the nation. There are many positives and negatives of my time in service, but these don’t mean that much to me because they are just the byproducts of my decision to serve in the first place.
I think that some junior officers lose sight of this idea of service. Some think that the Army either owes them something or that they owe something to the Army. Those that had bad experiences might want to leave because they think the Army wasted their time; maybe the Army turned out to be something different than what they thought it would be. Others might think that because the Army has provided them so much positive life experience, they owe something back to the organization and therefore should continue to serve. To me, it’s more based on a specified service obligation that I agreed to.
I also connect my service obligation to how old I am. I have always viewed my service as something I would complete while I was young (this being subjective, of course). I just think it’s easy for junior officers to get wrapped up in serving while they haven’t taken the time to properly think about where they would like to be in their life at certain stages (ages) in their lifetime. I don’t expect my peers to live their lives according to a strict timeline, but I still think it’s important for them to think about how spending a significant time in the Army can drastically affect where they are in life as they age and how that affects some of their broader aspirations.
I believe there is a significant dichotomy between those that view their time in the Army as a career and lifestyle, and those that view it as service or simply as “their time in the Army.” Of course this has been driven by the fact that the Army is now an all-volunteer force. The funny part about this is that there is no way to distinguish what camp an officer falls in by the quality of his or her work. There are good and bad officers that want to make a career in the Army and there are good and bad officers that want to serve their time and leave. Similar ideas have garnered some attention in the media, which has produced articles about how the Army needs to do more to keep its good officers, or how being an Army officer is a “Profession of Arms.”
What’s difficult is that when an officer decides they want to leave the Army, they are effectively saying that they don’t want to go down the same path that those who outrank them have. Because of this, many officers are forced to keep their thoughts about leaving under the radar until last minute. This is also, in part, because of the way the Army conceptualizes career development for its officers.
For most officers, their career development model is based on that of their battalion commanders, brigade commanders, or military mentors. These models are usually centered around taking command of a battalion upon being promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. A problem with this model is that not every officer that is promoted to lieutenant colonel can be a battalion commander simply because there are only so many battalion commander positions. Maybe the Army should think more deeply about how it could better develop officers for a wide range of positions that a lieutenant colonel could hold, rather than putting the primary focus on battalion command.
For the most part, in order to become at battalion commander, you have to have been in certain positions (and performed well) during your time in the Army, among which are company commander, operations officer, executive officer, and others. Officers who have made public their plans to eventually leave the Army are normally taken out of the running for some of these key positions even though they are ideal candidates for the jobs within the timeframe that they would still be serving. Some officers are essentially forced to keep their thoughts about leaving the military secret for this reason, which can result in an unnerving relationship with their chains of command as they fear being made outcasts rather than being put to best use while they are still serving. I suppose what I am trying to point out is that, with regard to service alone, officers on their last day in the Army are no different than officers on their first day in the Army. They are both serving the nation at that given point in time.
I believe it would be mutually beneficial for both the Army as an organization as well as its service members if officers were put to work doing what they are good at while they are still serving, not being walked through a mundane “transition” process that has questionable long-term benefits for either party involved. I would venture to say that most officers leaving the Army will do just fine transitioning into the civilian world. Yet the Army focuses on this idea of transition rather than putting individuals in positions that would benefit their units the most while they are still serving. Therefore, I believe officers who are thinking about leaving should primarily be viewed by the Army through the lens of service rather than that of either “career development” or “transition.”
All of this is nothing more than a young officer pointing out some of the thoughts playing in his mind as he thinks about leaving the Army. I have enjoyed most of my service, especially the people and camaraderie that I will surely never feel in any other organization. Many people have told me “the grass isn’t always greener.” I get this, but what they fail to realize is that I might be looking for a different landscape altogether. To be clear, if I leave the Army it won’t be because I have some kind of disdain for my time in service. Maybe I just want to end this chapter of military service and begin a new chapter in something different while I am still young enough to write the book I want to read for the rest of my life.
The author is a junior officer in the United States Army.
Krogher 
Rik Meyers 
Phil 
Jake W. 
Jay 
Bluelight 
Brad Taylor 
Pete 
Good article with some good insights. If you are prepared to sever your ties with the Army “for keeps”, then you can stop reading. However, you can dip your toes in the military two-days a month and join the USAR or NG. I am a Reservist and I have only been a Reservist. I have enjoyed it. It allows me to pursue a second career which I enjoy, but also lets me be a civilian for most of my life. (The hair on my face would drive the SMA crazy, but who cares? I’m a civilian!) Just some food for thought.
~ A USAR CPT
What this junior officer is doing is what I fear many do not do and that is to think through his/her goals. While the military is not for everybody, the same can be said for a military career. As a NCO I had these very same thoughts as my enlistment contract was coming to a close. To quote The Clash, “Do I stay or do I go?” I ultimately decided a career was what I wanted and did the ‘full pull’. Many of my friends decided not to and transitioned into civilian life or the guard/reserves.
The sad truth of this article is that officers must keep their cards close to the vest because as the author points out if he/she decides that they want to exit commanders are not going to ‘waste’ time grooming an officer for command if they do not have command aspirations and they will be shuffled off to some backwater office to finish out there days when they could be used to the best of their abilities prior to their departure.
Good on you for thinking through your goals. It was something I tried to get my Airmen to do prior to the end of their enlistment and not wait until the very last day they could re-enlist.
Good insights? Did this guy never visit the HRC website? How about looking into a functional area ? Maybe his BN commander didn’t tell him about that, but it’s not a big secret. There are lots of opportunities out there, and lots of commanders who will support their pursuit.
Maybe, just maybe, junior officers need to worry a little less about sharing the deep pool of knowledge with their blog-du-jur. After three whole years, maybe an LT doesn’t have anything profound to add to the organization. That’s ok. At that point you’re still new. Be humble and do your job.
Bottom line, this LT doesn’t want to ACAP; he doesn’t think he needs to do it. He doesn’t like the job he’s got for the last six months. Too bad. Maybe his BN commander needs someone else in the position he’s really “good at” because putting him there won’t do the organization any good in a few months when he’s on terminal leave and growing the facial hair that the USAR apparently relishes so much. At least he had the sense not to include his name.
P.S. The four years in ROTC did not count as “life in the Army.”
Other functional areas, fellowships, etc. There are numerous options for a Senior LT or Captain to take up. But one of the points this Junior Officer is making is that he may want to continue in a different field. As in, not being a Soldier. If he wanted to continue Soldiering on, then yes. He might take command of a unit, pursue his Masters at John Hopkins, Serve as a fellow in the White House, the list goes on. But if he wants a change, then none of those matter to him.
Now it’s true, an LT with three years is typically just a Butterbar with a little more knowledge and responsibility. But that being said, I’ve known quite a few LT’s with three years under their belt who were much better officers than some Captains or Majors with 7, 8 or 10 year’s under their belts. Time in service does not equate to quality as an officer or even NCO.
And finaly, no, he probably doesn’t want to ACAP. He feels that he could better serve his troops and his nation if kept in his current position. I don’t blame him. I’ve known a number of Soldiers who didn’t want to and felt that they either didn’t need to, or could better serve in their current position. If someone is squared away with their life and has opportunities lined up for him after the Army already, why the big push for ACAP?
Bottom line, this young guy is just that. Young. He has his entire life ahead of him, so can you really blame him for questioning if he wants to spend the rest of it in places like Ft. Polk, or Ft. Irwin when he could instead get a cush job in Miami and retire to Las Vegas?
He makes statements about the Army’s carreer progression program, that are obviously just his own opinions. Some Officers know they’ll never make their first Star, so why push for it when they should instead focus on their next Range.
All I’m saying is that this guy has thoughts in his head and wanted to flush them out for his own sake. Someone may have suggested that WOTR was a good forum, or maybe WOTR asked this young officer for his thoughts. But they’re just that. His thoughts.
Very good insights. I agree with the statements that the author makes. Unlike Phil, I welcome such discussions. I am an Infantry Company Commander with two tours in Afghanistan. I have the “right” schools and pedigree to be competitive for promotion and command at higher levels. I am also one of many Company Commanders within the Army today that are considering getting out. The “in-or-out” decision and discussion is one that you truly cannot have openly with most. I am lucky enough to have a Battalion Commander that does not take such decisions personnally. However, I have a Brigade Commander that takes such decisions very personally. If I were to even have the discussion with my Brigade Commander, I would likely be removed from my position. Officers that make the decision to get out are commonly pushed away and into roles in which they are under-utilized.
I have looked at the HRC website. I have considered VTIP and other options. In the end though, my decision will be based on a number of factors and not simply because, as has been implied, I did not consider other options within the Army.
To the author: if you decide to continue your service, thank you for doing so. If you wish to end your service at the end of your contract, then no worries. Thank you for your service. It is healthy and necessary to consider other options. Failure to do so means you deprive yourself of professional context and you close your mind off to other options.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck.
The worst reason to stay is because you don’t have a better idea at this point in time. Your soldiers deserve better than that. Not saying that is your position, but you don’t necessarily sound inspired to continue either.
Letting your chain of command know you are doing your four years and leaving is a good way to self-select into the battalion safety officer position. When I was looking at that decision, I found a mentor (a senior captain…we had those back in the late 80’s) who was outside my chain of command and ran it by him.
I will never forget his advice. “you will never work with a better group of men than Marine officers”. I stayed, did 25 years, commanded all the way up, and retired as a colonel. He was right and I was very glad I took his perspective into consideration and stayed. Good luck to you.
I hear myself in this article at my ten-year point, but the article is just a tad naive. The army is no different than any organization striving to maximize its assets. If you voice the fact that you’re leaving, then you’re leaving. By the author’s own admission – whether right or wrong – certain billets are crucial to further advancement, and those billets aren’t chosen randomly. They’re chosen because they have shown that the experience is crucial for the success of the Army’s ability to fight and win on the battlefield. To be a Battalion commander requires certain experience, and just as there aren’t enough commands to go around to satisfy every one who wishes to stay, there aren’t enough developmental positions either. As he states early on, it’s a two way street between the service and the soldier. Yes, it would be good to use the absolute best man for the job, but if that man is leaving in six months, I’d rather take the second best and give him the experience. He’s the one staying, and I won’t waste the valuable experience on someone leaving. I don’t want to go to war in seven months with someone who doesn’t have the skills. I know, I know, everyone will say, “That’s getting men killed at the five month mark”, but that’s BS. The truth is the difference between the two is marginal, and I’m not talking about putting a boob in place of an all star. I’m talking about putting in someone who is committed instead of someone looking out the door. Having served over twenty years – and yes at the Battalion Command level – I’ve seen officers who decide to transition. Good officers whom I admired and respected, but once that decision is made, they aren’t giving 100% until they ETS. They’re looking at their future, and trying to decide where they want to go. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I supported them 100%, but saying that officers don’t have trouble with transition belies the fact that a man can’t drive out of the front gate on his last day and THEN say, “So what am I going to do?” He needs time to find a job, time to sort out his life, and that time is called transition. On the flip side, the Army needs time to develop those who chose to stay, and it isn’t fair to handicap future soldiers with leaders who don’t have the experience to succeed because someone who transitioned walked out with that same experience.
To the author, thanks for this piece. I have recently made the decision to leave active duty, and I appreciated much of what you had to say. If you’d like to continue the conversation, please shoot me an email.
Born and brought up in an army family, I have realized that my dad has become a bit lethargic after retiring. But he has become a soldier for life, justifying the statement – once a soldier, always a soldier.