by yoshi » Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:27 am
i, too, am a prior, who appreciates the problem confronted by the community. as i wrote last year when answering the question related to how the community could improve in retaining officers at the 20 year mark, i don't see how it will be fixed. too many priors do create a mid-level officer hemorrhage at their 20 year mark, and it is perfectly understandable why. there just isn't enough incentive to stay past that point. the money difference means if you stay to promote and get paid, you may net about 800 dollars more per month (rough estimation). The pay charts also do nothing to aid retention beyond 20 years for anyone at the O4 level who has 7 or more years of enlisted service (17 total years at that point), as promotion is the only raise to be had (and once promoted nothing new until the next promotion). More importantly than the money, however, is the prospect of giving up what usually turns out to be 5 or so critical years in one's 4th decade of life. it is easier to start (and finish) a second career when one is 42-45 than it is when one is 47-52. when one considers the necessity of hitting the proper billets which will facilitate promotion to the next level (O5, let's say), the choice gets a little easier. there isn't much incentive beyond 20, unless one just really likes everything about the military/Navy. So - for the good of the community we MUST have lateral transfers. It makes sense that lots of flags are lat transfers. They do play an integral role and it is important for them to make up the senior level leadership of the community, as I suspect senior level leadership is more likely to be a prioritized goal of theirs (especially for those who have never worked outside the Navy) than it would be for a prior. At the senior level, it really becomes less about technical competence and more about relationships, or so I've been told. So, I don't really see a difference between a lateral transfer and a 'purebred' IWO. The big issue is making sure everyone is trained adequately at every level for the responsibility and requirements of the positions they will assume (** AHEM**(stomp, stomp)).