Sorry for the silence after posting yesterday’s Snark Hunt. The Venomous Hubby and I received some rather disappointing news, and I’ve been enraged about it ever since.
Hubby, for those who don’t know it, is 9 months away from retirement as an LTC in the U.S. Army. Given the current war footing – and his MOS – we’d hoped he’d get a 2-year extension and postpone his retirement while I complete the novel and prepare to launch my web hosting company. Unfortunately, that’s not to be.
We received a call from a good friend who’s quite intimate with the selection and retention process. He’d been tapped to pass on the word to Hubby that the “powers that be” will not be extending Hubby’s service. Apparently, despite the depletion of upper-level officers, and particularly officers with Hubby’s MOS, the U.S. Army is not granting extensions to men of his rank unless they have a Master’s Degree. Hubby does not. At one point he’d hoped to complete one but since his job required travel 12 days per month it wasn’t possible for him to both work and finish an advanced degree.
Turns out, Hubby’s not alone in this. We’ve since heard from a handful of friends and acquaintances of equal rank who also sought – and were denied – extensions on the same grounds. Ironically, the same friend who’d called to give us the bad news had to make the call to our other friends, too. I imagine that somewhere in Arlington, he’s feeling like a real ass despite knowing that nobody holds it against him for having to deliver the news.
Anyway, I won’t be posting on the weekends for the next few months and will most likely cut back a bit on the weekday posting as well. Sorry about that, but blame it on the U.S. Army. I’ll be busying myself with the final steps toward launching my hosting company. After all, someone has to bring home the bacon.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2004, 10:48 am | 
My Venomous Life, War Bites | 
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May 4, 2004 at 11:16 am
Bring home the bacon while you still can.
May 4, 2004 at 3:12 pm
Many companies such as CSC, MITRE and EDS snap up retires almost as fast as they can. My nieces husband is at the same point and may be the one that called. Look at this as an opertunity.
May 4, 2004 at 11:53 am
Thanks, I needed a good chuckle!
May 4, 2004 at 12:51 pm
The obsession with degrees and `skills certificates’ is an obtuse evasion of the stuff of competence. To take the example of your husband, the question properly is he an effective cobat officer or whatever he is engaged to do in the army. A masters degree makes not difference whatsoever.
The downside is, as of middle management, a clearing of the decks to make way for new emerging senior officers in order , understandably the few who are commander, c.e.o. material. Yet another degree on top adds nothing to such prospects.
May 4, 2004 at 1:18 pm
As USN (ret) this dosen’t surprise me in the least. The sad part is there are many that will be asked to stay that have Master’s Degree’s in basket weaving or the mateing habits of the Antarctic butterfly.
May 4, 2004 at 2:36 pm
Good luck on all fronts; hubbies retirement, your hosting site, and the book.
It does boggle the mind though, that someone is NOT happy to be retireing.
May 4, 2004 at 9:40 pm
It seems perverse that at such a time the army would actually be trying to lose experience for the sake of a masters degree, especially when such degrees rarely make up for actual work/field experience (and having done one, I talk from experience).
May 4, 2004 at 10:48 pm
The Rivrdog suffered a similar fate almost 20 years ago, and I retired with the reserve grade of Major.
This STILL reminds me of the old Charlie the Tuna Ads, in reverse. Starkist DOES want tunas with good taste, not tunas that taste good.
In my case, it wasn’t good enough to be the best B-52 Radar Nav (Bombardier) in the wing. They wanted me to have a Master’s and all the service schools up through Air War College.
Military management theory is too different from business management to be of any use to the average field-grade officer, and ask anyone whover made it through the service PME schools: the purpose of them is to just get through and get that ticket punched.
Sorry, Kate, maybe you’ll have to move back to the more affordable mainland. Think of Oregon, it’s a target-rich environment.
May 5, 2004 at 3:54 am
Sorry to hear it. It’s bizarre indeed at a time when so many people would love to get out of the Army and aren’t being allowed to.
I’m not sure why the big emphasis on Masters degrees–and I say that as someone who had his as a 2nd Lieutenant. Most of the military folks who have one get it in a largely useless field from a degree mill, but they get the proper check in the box. Frankly, I’m surprised he made LTC without the degree in today’s climate.
Allen is right, though, contractors are snapping up retired officers, especially if they’ve got Top Secret clearance. Getting a clearance right now takes forever and there’s more work than available people for cleared folks right now. Of course, chances increase substantially if you’re willing to live in the DC area.
May 5, 2004 at 4:36 am
Maybe someone forgot to tell PERSCOM that we are at war and maybe it is time to look at the promotion and retainabilit criteria. The five sided puzzle palace strikes again.
May 5, 2004 at 5:27 am
I’m really sorry Kate. I hope it all works out better in the end – it’s from now til then that it gets sticky. Oddly enough my husband just finished up his MBA because he was laid off a year and a half ago. All that extra time you know…
And as James noted – there’s tons of work out there for people with security clearances – so it looks like he’ll have some good options. I just hope it works well for you guys.
May 5, 2004 at 6:24 am
Look at the bright side, Kate. He’s not gonna get his ass shipped to Iraq or Afganistan.
May 5, 2004 at 5:37 pm
Reminds me of that recurring scene in MASH (the movie, not that excretable TV show), the First SGT. in the jeep saying ‘God Damned Army’.
We are going to be at war for the next generation, we are going to need three to ten more active duty divisions and they’re letting go a light Colonel with twenty years experience. More than one.
Georgie Patton didn’t have a Master’s, nor did Ike. I don’t recall Douglas MacArthur having one.
Westmoreland had advanced degrees, though. Got caught with his pants around his ankles in Tet of ’68 as I recall.
What’s worse is the idiocy has spread, it started (naturally) with the Zoomies and the Squids where it makes a little sense to have the missileers knowing something about rocket science and the Nukie-poos knowing enough that we all aren’t glowing in the dark.
Nobody can tell me though that somebody who is bright enough to make short Colonel can’t be useful in the Army even if the only degrees he’s got is 98.6 from the Unuversity of Farenheit.
Now I read where it’s even slopping over into the Corps. Like there’s someplace to get a Master’s in Bayonette.
God damned Army.
May 5, 2004 at 5:42 pm
That’s inane. I hate that we are moving to a culture where experience doesn’t matter.
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May 12, 2004 at 2:23 am