Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee and serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (which she formerly Chaired). Her office issued the following:
For Immediate Release
CONTACT:
Murray (202) 224-2834
Isakson (202) 224-7777
Monday,
November 24, 2014
Murray, Isakson Lead Bipartisan Letter Pressing Army Secretary on “Grave Concern” Over Retirement Benefits
In
letter to Army Secretary McHugh, Senators call for immediate reversal of policy forcing officers to retire at highest enlisted rank
Current policy results in significant decrease in lifetime retirement benefits, for some as much as $1,000 per month or more
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) led a bipartisan group of colleagues in
sending a letter to U.S. Army Secretary John McHugh over the
Army’s treatment of a significant number of captains and majors who
are former non-commissioned officers and are being forced to retire at
their highest previous enlisted rank as a result of the Army’s use of
Enhanced-Selective Early Retirement Boards (E-SERB).
This will result in a significant decrease in lifetime retirement
benefits for the impacted soldiers, for some as much as $1,000 per month
or more, or just over $1 million over a 40 year retirement in the case
of a captain forced to retire as a sergeant first
class.
“These
former non-commissioned officers answered the Army’s call for
volunteers to attend Officer Candidate School as the Army expanded its
officer corps to fight the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, despite having served for years as
commissioned officers and rising through the ranks to become captains
and majors, these dedicated soldiers will soon be forced to retire at
their highest previous enlisted rank,”
the Senators wrote in their letter.
“To
demote these soldiers in retirement is an injustice that devalues their
service and will materially disadvantage them and their families for
the rest of their lives… We strongly
urge you to take the necessary steps to rectify this situation in order
to allow these soldiers to retire at the rank they have earned and
appropriately honor their service to our nation.”
Under
current law a soldier must serve at least 8 years of active service as a
commissioned officer in order to retire as a commissioned officer.
Soldiers who serve 20
years total, but less than 8 years as commissioned officers are retired
at their highest enlisted rank. During the “Grow the Army” effort the
Army dramatically increased the number of officers commissioned via its
Officer Candidate School (OCS). The Army
expanded to a post 9-11 peak of 570,000 soldiers in 2010 and is
currently executing an aggressive end strength reduction designed to
shrink the Army to 450,000 soldiers. Many of those OCS graduates are
now being forced to retire through the E-SERB process
as the Army shrinks. Officers with more than 18 years active service
are screened by E-SERB and those selected will be forced to retire on
the first day of the month following the month they reach 20 years of
service. These former non-commissioned officers
stepped up and volunteered for OCS at a time the Army badly needed
officers and served honorably for between 6 and 7 years. Now, many are
being retired at enlisted ranks they have not held in years. This is
particularly disturbing because had they ignored
the Army’s call for officers most would have been promoted at least
once more and been eligible to retire at a higher enlisted rank.
Senators Murray and Isakson were joined in sending the
letter by: Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA),
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike
Johanns (R-NE),
Tim
Johnson (D-SD), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Claire
McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Bernard Sanders (D-VT) and Jeanne
Shaheen (D-NH).
Read a one-page summary of the issue
here.
The full text of the
letter is as follows:
November 19, 2014
The Honorable John McHugh
Secretary of the Army
101 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-0101
Dear Secretary McHugh:
We
write to express our grave concern over the Army’s treatment of a
significant number of Army captains and majors who are former
non-commissioned officers. These
former non-commissioned officers answered the Army’s call for
volunteers to attend Officer Candidate School as the Army expanded its
officer corps to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, despite
having served for years as commissioned officers and
rising through the ranks to become captains and majors, these dedicated
soldiers will soon be forced to retire at their highest previous
enlisted rank. This will result in a significant decrease in lifetime
retirement benefits for the impacted soldiers, approximately
$1,000 per month or just over $1 million over a 40 year retirement in
the case of a captain forced to retire as a sergeant first class. This
is simply unacceptable.
These
former non-commissioned officers have been placed in this untenable
position as a result of the Army’s use of Enhanced-Selective Early
Retirement Boards (E-SERB).
Officers selected by the boards are forced to retire as soon as they
reach 20 years of service. Unfortunately, under current law a soldier
must serve at least 8 years of active service as a commissioned officer
in order to retire as a commissioned officer.
Soldiers who serve 20 years total, but less than 8 years as
commissioned officers are retired at their highest enlisted rank. While
this requirement makes sense in the case of soldiers who choose to
retire, are passed over for multiple promotions, or are
forced to retire due to misconduct, none of those cases applies to the
soldiers in question. On the contrary, Army Human Resources Command has
explicitly acknowledged that E-SERB will separate fully qualified
officers “who have rendered quality service to
the nation.” To demote these soldiers in retirement is an injustice
that devalues their service and will materially disadvantage them and
their families for the rest of their lives.
Rather
than forcing these officers to retire as soon as they reach 20 years of
service, the Army could modify its E-SERB policy to delay the mandatory
retirement date
of affected soldiers until the first month after they become eligible
to retire as commissioned officers. For many of the affected soldiers
this would extend their time in service by only a few months. We
strongly urge you to take the necessary steps to
rectify this situation in order to allow these soldiers to retire at
the rank they have earned and appropriately honor their service to our
nation.
Sincerely,
Patty Murray
United States Senator
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator
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Meghan Roh
Press Secretary
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Mobile: (202) 365-1235
Office: (202) 224-2834