According to a servicewide order that was made available this week, the Army wants to recruit retired soldiers up to address pressing personnel shortages.
The All Army Activities report describes how Army retirees can look for and use for empty positions, and it aims to keep a sufficient number of employees to replace all of the Army’s official positions.
The organization has publicly acknowledged its struggles to compromise a shrinking workforce with the demands of sprawling international goal sets as enrollment problems continue for the second time in a column.
” A review of commands ‘ requests for]the ] pack of authorized personnel vacancies, in conjunction with current Army holding advice, prompted review of how the Army you fill crucial and important position vacancies”, the document states, outlining the situation. The “retiree recall program can fill significant personnel gaps in official regular Army positions that are deemed crucial and necessary.”
Whether the Army had identified holding shortages that needed to be filled or whether it was issuing the message in anticipation of additional needs was unknown. The Army did n’t respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comments by deadline.
Any Army, Reserve, or National Guard soldier who qualifies as retired or soon to become retired—meaning with at least 20 times of service—and people receiving retired give is eligible to apply, the Army’s text states. Neither time nor disability only may exclude a man from joining, depending on the illness, and returning service people would still have to fulfill the Army’s health needs.
” There is no age limitation, although personnel older than 70 are not normally recalled”, the message states.
In the event that a crucial position arises that no one else can fill, those who apply for the program essentially consent to the Army giving them orders to return to active duty. However, the message does n’t authorize any special pay or incentives.
I do n’t fully understand this memo but hey, what the hell, any Old# M1Abrams Tanker want to ride again?? You remember that no matter what it’s still the# BestJobIEver Had?? https ://t.co/gxNCkrKMa6— Michael Liscano Jr. ( @jr_liscano ) March 21, 2024
Initial online discussions about the Army document’s voluntary nature and whether it suggests deeper manning issues sparked confusion and even irony among military professionals.
The Army does have a lot of manpower, but because of the recruiting crisis, they are concentrated in the lower enlistment grades, according to retired Lt. Col. Thomas Spoehr, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an expert on defense policy and strategy. Since retirees are old, I’m not sure if this particular message does anything.
However, the Army recently acknowledged a pervasive issue with overuse of vacant positions and proposed a reorganization that would reduce the number of open positions by the tens of thousands.
The Army’s force structure was reviewed for a year by the organization in late February, and the organization came to the conclusion that the number and specialization of the positions that made up the force did not adapt to the changing security environment.
The Army is “over- structured, meaning there are not enough soldiers to fill out existing units and organizations”, the review states. It emphasizes that the cuts are coming to “authorizations ( spaces )” not “individual soldiers ( faces )”.
The Army’s current force structure assumes an active- duty end strength—or total number of troops—of 494, 000, according to the document. In the defense policy bill for the fiscal year 2024, Congress set a end-strength limit of 445, 000, a historically low figure because the Army struggled to find enough soldiers to meet end-strength goals.
Officials defended cutting the 24, 000 positions that had been cut as the Army dealt with its worst-ever recruiting crisis as helping ensure the service only has the ability to assign and deploy the people it has available, reducing the strain and allowing for more realistic planning.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was the source of its initial publication.
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