Army Tries Incentives to Keep Officers

Saturday May 12, 2007 5:46 AM
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army will offer incentives to keep midlevel
officers as it faces another decade or so in combat around the world,
its chief of staff said Friday.
Gen. George Casey, who took over as the Army's chief just a month
ago, said the United States will “be in a period of conflict for, I believe,
another five or ten years.” And the Army, which has been stretched
and stressed by five difficult years at war, must be organized and
equipped to deal with that challenge, he said.
The general said he is not suggesting that the Iraq or Afghanistan wars
will last five more years. But Casey, who was the top commander in
Iraq until February, acknowledged that building a stable, self-governing
Iraq is a “long-term proposition.”
To stem a growing trend of critical future leaders leaving the service,
Casey said the Army will unveil a plan next week to give some captains
$20,000 to stay on. He said the Army also will increase opportunities
for officers to go to various graduate schools as another incentive
to stay in the military. The captains also would get a choice in duty
assignments. LinkHere