Strained by war, U.S. Army promotes unqualified soldiers

[Newsjock]

Source: Salon

FORT HOOD, Texas -- America's military commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan is certain to remain a key issue in the presidential race -- and soon that could include renewed focus on a "stretched thin" U.S. Army. According to a Salon investigation, the Army is facing a troubling shortage of qualified sergeants, the noncommissioned officers considered to be the backbone of training and combat operations. In fact, a new Army policy intended to boost this critical leadership corps of NCOs has prompted a wave of promotions for apparently unqualified soldiers -- and even jeopardized some combat operations in Iraq.

In essence, an Army policy implemented in 2005 and expanded this year lowered the bar for enlisted soldiers with the rank of E-4 to gain the rank of sergeant, or E-5, by diminishing the vetting process. According to more than a half dozen current and former Army sergeants interviewed by Salon, the policy has produced sergeants who are not ready to lead. In some cases, soldiers were promoted even after being denied advancement by their own unit commanders. While awarding a promotion once required effort on the part of a commander, those interviewed say, the Army's current policy actually requires effort to prevent a promotion, and has had negative consequences on the battlefield.

... Under the current policy, after 48 months of service E-4s serving in military specialties with shortages are automatically placed on a promotions list. Although a soldier's name can be removed by his or her commander, each month that soldier's name is placed back on the list. This was termed "automatic list integration" by the Army (or what the soldiers call "paper boarding"). This April, the policy was expanded to include promotions to staff sergeant, or E-6.

Read more: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/07/30/sergeants/

[flashl]

1. Isn't the same true for officers who just need to be in theater 'long enough' to get promotion?

When enlisted 'sign up' they sign a 'contract', which may include a promotion to a specified rank within a fix time period, this makes these promotions lawful.

[14thColony]

6. Promotions in the company grade ranks

is automatic in the Air Force and the Army. Generally 24 months as a 2Lt and you make 1Lt, then 24 more months and you make Captain. Time in or out of war zones has no effect. To miss this promotion you would have to be charged with a violation of the UCMJ and served non-judicial punishment, but then you career's pretty much over anyway if you've done something that bad as an officer.

For field grade officers (majors and above), deployed time is now more closely tracked and is a discriminator that a promotion board will weigh as a factor in their decision. Deployed time won't save a lackluster officer's career (it's but one of many factors) and no deployments won't kill a good officer, but a good officer is smart enough to know not to give the board anything negative to look at, so they tend to make sure they have combat time - since it's becoming so common to have it, you don't want to look bad by not having it.

[bdab1973]

7. No...

Officers aren't enlisted...they don't sign contracts. They have service commitments, and upon the expiration of those commitments they can leave if they choose, or stay in.

[flashl]

8. Sorry if effort to make distinction was unclear. My point was that enslisted had contracts. nt

[Phred42]

2. My 60 yrold friend just landed in Iraq - to fix PC's for the Military

:banghead:

[Solly Mack]

3. Yep. Have been for a while now....it's getting worse.

[Platypus]

4. This is news?

This has obviously been going for years. Just look how many warbloggers are out there claiming to have been E-6 or better, who are so intellectually and emotionally deficient that they obviously couldn't be trusted to work unsupervised at a 7-11 let alone command a squad of adults with weapons. I'm sure many of them are lying about their military experience (there seem to be more Rangers with blogs than ever went through that program) but they can't *all* be and even the few exceptions are sufficient to make me wonder about how far the military's standards have fallen.

[gratuitous]

5. "Reporting not ready for duty, sir"

Remember the hoo-hah in 2000 when George W. Bush alleged that the military had been seriously compromised during the Clinton administration? Boy oh boy, without a mortal enemy, we were moving toward a sense of sanity in relation to just how much of a military we need, and it had the Republicans and their media sycophants hoppin' mad, I will tell you.

Now, with the military taking in mugs, pugs, thugs, half-wits, nit-wits and dim-wits and promoting them helter-skelter into positions of authority without proper training, disposition or experience, do you hear solemn intonations that the flag is falling or some other such nonsense? You most certainly do not. Instead, we are treated to mentally unbalanced persons trying to shotgun congregations because they let teh gayz in the front door.