Gates: Changes possible for officer promotions

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates addresses the Association of the United States Army conference Oct. 10 in Washington. Gates told the audience there that policies governing the way junior and mid-level officers are promoted may be revised.


Gates: Changes possible for officer promotions
By Gina Cavallaro and Brendan McGarry - Staff writers
Posted : Wednesday Oct 10, 2007 16:47:58 EDT

AUSA 2007, WASHINGTON, D.C. – Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that policies governing the way junior and mid-level officers are promoted may be revised.

He made his comments at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army, a speaking engagement he said was among the first he accepted when he took the top defense job in January.

“Our junior and mid-level officers have seen the complex and grueling face of war, some have been deployed multiple times and want some semblance of a normal life,” he said. “These men and women need to be retained so the best and the brightest advance to the point where they can use their experience to shape the institution for which they’ve given so much. This may mean reexamining the assignments and promotion policies that, in many cases, were unchanged since the Cold War.”

Gates’s comments may offer a glimpse into yet more efforts to retain these officers, whose ranks have been thinning over the course of more than six years of war and repeated deployments.

The Army in September announced an unprecedented choice of incentives for captains and promotable lieutenants, including bonuses of up to $35,000 and an option to return to graduate school.

The force is “under stress and … out of balance” but not broken., Gates said in comments largely focused on the state of the Army and the transformational challenges ahead.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/army_gates_ausa_071010w/