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Army faces O-4, O-5 shortage

WEST POINT, N.Y. — The Army, forced by five years of war to expand its ranks, faces a critical shortage in midlevel officers, interviews and military records show.

Those officers — majors and lieutenant colonels — manage troops at war. The Army expects to have an annual shortage of 3,000 such officers through 2013 as it increases its ranks by 40,000 soldiers.

Beyond the shortage of midlevel officers looms an impending shortage of entry-level officers — lieutenants — from the U.S. Military Academy and university Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs, records show. Last year, 846 cadets graduated from West Point; the goal was 900. There were 25,100 enrolled in ROTC out of a goal of 31,000, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Only a rise in soldiers put through the Army’s Officer Candidate School has allowed the service to meet its goal for lieutenants, the GAO report said. OCS is a 14-week course that obligates graduates to two years in the Army. It is expected to reach capacity this year, the GAO said.

“They’re going to have problems with field-grade officers — big shortages,” says Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. “They’re going to have to limp through.”

The shortage of midlevel officers stems from Pentagon decisions 10 years ago to reduce the number of officers commissioned after the Cold War, the GAO said.

Officers are staying in the Army at historically high rates, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. The Army just needs more to feed its growing ranks, he said.

“We are short about 3,000 midgrade officers, particularly majors, and we will be for the next several years,” he said.

The GAO report said officer retention remains a problem for the Army, in part because it “continues to remain heavily involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.” In 2005, 62 percent of West Point graduates stayed beyond their five-year active-duty commitment. That’s as much as 30 percent lower than the rates for Naval and Air Force Academy graduates.

Expanding educational incentives could help the Army keep younger officers. For example, the Army offers to pay for graduate school for midlevel officers.

Navy and Air Force graduates often remain in service longer because of flight training programs that require longer active-duty commitments than the Army, said Col. Kelly Kruger, director of West Point’s office of policy, plans and analysis.

West Point graduates are also attractive to the private sector, Kruger said. “They’re highly sought after. It’s also a tough life for young officers.”

Cadets know about “five and fly,” the practice in which officers leave the Army after their five-year commitment, said cadet Liz Verardo, 21, who is considering an Army career as a helicopter pilot.

All cadets know the toll the war has taken on academy graduates, but that hasn’t deterred them from serving, said Jon Nielsen, the highest-ranking academy cadet. One of his duties is to announce the combat deaths of academy graduates.

“I made about 10-plus announcements in the span of a couple weeks,” said Nielsen, 25. “You didn’t have a flood of people heading to the gate to get out.”