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thedrifter
09-23-04, 05:58 AM
09-21-2004

Is A Commission a Life Sentence?



By Paul Connors



Over the last few months as I have written articles on the mistreatment of commissioned officers by the U.S. Army’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a number of company and field grade officers have contacted me to tell of their experiences. Their unsolicited comments confirm that the problem is far more widespread than I had originally suspected.



While each officer’s story had unique qualities and details to it, there was a common thread that ran throughout: With two exceptions, each officer had last served in the grade of captain (O-3) and was a member of the IRR. Of the two exceptions, one captain was a member of a drilling engineer unit in the USAR; the other was a former enlisted Marine who subsequently had received a commission in the Army National Guard, served twenty years and had sufficient commissioned service to retire as a captain. That officer was recalled from retirement and received an initial assignment to Fort Benning, Ga., with a follow-on assignment to Iraq.



One of the involuntarily recalled captains was subsequently promoted to major (in the IRR) and served a portion of his recalled time in that rank. He has since been released from active duty and has returned to civilian life.



Another common thread that all of these inactive officers pointed out were that most reserve officers, especially those who were commissioned within the last ten years, had been completely unaware that they needed to take positive action to resign their commissions at the end of their eight-year service obligation. These officers who asked for anonymity did so not so much for their own protection, but to preserve relationships they had had with former commanders or personnel administrators who were attempting to assist them in the processing of their resignations.



While the case of former 1st Lt. Todd Parrish of Raleigh, N.C., has received the most publicity, it is not known how many officers in the IRR have followed his lead and retained legal counsel to challenge the Army’s right to recall officers to active duty indefinitely. The key word here is “indefinitely.” Unlike enlisted members, officers receive a presidential commission and continue to serve until such time as the officer resigns his or her commission and that resignation is approved by the chain of command.



In the case of Army Reserve officers in the IRR, the resigning officer must receive as first endorsement, the approval of the first colonel in his or her chain of command. Should there not be a colonel in that approving chain, then the officer must receive permission to resign from the first general officer within the officer’s unit’s reporting structure.



Many officers with whom I have spoken or corresponded, especially those in specialized or undermanned specialties, say they have been told informally that a resignation request will most likely be disapproved and they are encouraged to withdraw the paperwork. Even when approval authorities endorse and approve the officer’s resignation and then forward it to the Human Resources Command in the USAR, there is no guarantee that the faceless officials at headquarters will approve the action favorably endorsed by subordinate units.



Each of the company grade officers who have written to me were unknown to each other and yet, they all confirmed that they had received similar treatment when they had attempted to resign.



Of course, there are other factors that work to keep a reserve officer bound to the military and government. Some were officers who elected to take severance packages and leave active duty during the force level drawdowns of the 1990s. Those who elected to take lump-sum buyouts were permitted to resign and leave the military (with no obligations) shortly thereafter. Others, who elected to receive annuities over a specified period of time, retained their commitment(s) to the government and were required to remain in the IRR until their 60th birthdays (the statutory age for reservists and Guardsmen to retire).



The common refrain from officers who have brought their stories to the media has been one of confusion, disappointment and sometimes, anger. The variety of emotions and reactions appear to be the factor that binds them all together as they seek to get answers from a personnel system that itself, oftentimes works counter to its own needs and interests.



Regardless of the branch or functional specialty of the officer who received an involuntary recall, there has been unanimity in the reporting of another salient fact: the mobilization stations of the officers (and enlisted members) receiving the influx of recalled personnel have been unprepared to receive them when they report for duty. The lack of organization at receiving centers, the pay and accounting problems, the lack of medical care and other support facilities for families left behind all add to the frustration of personnel who had previously served and in many cases thought they had completed their military obligations.



One young captain recently returned from Iraq informed me that he had attempted to resign his commission after more than nine years of service. This captain pointed out that he was not critical of U.S. efforts or the war itself, he simply felt he had met the obligation he committed to as an ROTC cadet and wanted to move on with his life.



The captain had researched the procedure to submit an “unqualified” resignation (i.e. one not submitted based on hardship), completed the requisite paperwork and submitted it up through his chain of command. This same officer, serving in a USAR engineer unit where the next command level lacked a colonel, requested that the next senior officer (a brigadier general) approve his request to resign. The general did so, but the captain later received word from human resources at HQ, U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC) that all unqualified resignations were automatically being disapproved. He added that he was informed that headquarters USARC was the sole determining authority on what constituted a “hardship.”



As the Army grapples with the problems created by personnel shortages, many caused by the irresponsible force drawdowns during the Clinton administration, it becomes increasingly clear that accepting a commission as an officer will now bind the recipient to governmental service far beyond what is envisioned by the young cadet or officer candidate on the day he or she raises his or her right hand and takes the oath of office.



Enlisted retention numbers in the Army Reserve and National Guard have already started to slip and will, in all likelihood continue to do so. Now that the Human Resources Command has made such a mess of the officer recalls, it will be very interesting to see how it plans to prevent such recurrences with future generations of officers in the IRR.



Paul Connors is a Senior Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at paulconnors@hotmail.com. © 2004 Paul Connors. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.

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Ellie