Are Some of the Army’s Best Soldiers Being Forced Out?
Are Some of the Army’s Best Soldiers Being Forced Out? By Scott Maucione, Federal News Radio
A Rhodes Scholar.
The co-founder of a successful professional development organization.
A special forces operator who speaks three languages.
A three-time champion on the game show “Jeopardy!”
These are four Army officers — three captains and one lieutenant — that any business would hire in the blink of an eye.
But these talented, highly educated leaders are on the cusp of being involuntarily separated, have already been released or have had their jobs saved in the nick of time by Gen. Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff.
The Army is in a talent crisis. Its most recent study on the issue, in 2010, found only 6 percent of Army officers thought the service did a good job of retaining its best leaders.
The Army fights to keep private industry from leeching its best soldiers. With better pay, more comprehensive benefits and a stable location, the private sector seems tempting compared to military life.
But former Army officials and experts who spoke to Federal News Radio as part of our special report: The Army is Shortchanging its Future Force say the service is forcing out some of its best leaders even without the appeal of a private sector job luring them away.
Meet Capt. Jim Perkins, one of those soldiers being forced out.
Perkins loves the Army. In fact, he loves it so much that he started Military Mentors, an organization founded to improve the quality of leadership in the military.
The organization connects members with each other and gives them tools to develop themselves as leaders.
Perkins is also the executive director of the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, an innovation engine of emerging defense leaders that wants to solve national security problems from the bottom up by using civilian and business techniques…
