Officers Plot Exit Strategy
Many young lieutenants
and captains, key leaders in combat, are deciding against Army careers
in light of the open-ended war on terrorism.
By Mark Mazzetti
Times Staff Writer
May 22, 2005
KILLEEN, Texas — Army Capts. Dave Fulton and Geoff Heiple spent 12
months dodging roadside bombs and rounding up insurgents along
Baghdad's "highway of death" — the six miles of pavement linking
downtown Baghdad to the capital city's airport. Two weeks after
returning stateside to Ft. Hood, they ventured to a spartan conference
room at the local Howard Johnson to find out about changing careers.
Lured by a headhunting firm that places young military officers in
private-sector jobs, the pair, both 26, expected anonymity in the
crowded room.
Instead, as Fulton and Heiple sipped Budweisers pulled from
Styrofoam coolers next to the door, they spotted nearly a dozen
familiar faces from their cavalry battalion, which had just ended a
yearlong combat tour in Iraq.
The shocks of recognition came as they exchanged quick, awkward
glances with others from their unit, each man clearly surprised to see
someone else considering a life outside the military.
"This is a real eye-opener," said Fulton, a West Point graduate
who saw a handful of cadets from his class. "It seems like everyone in
the room is either from my squad or from my class."
More than three years after the Sept. 11 attacks spawned an era of
unprecedented strain on the all-volunteer military, it is scenes like
this that keep the Army's senior generals awake at night. With
thousands of soldiers currently on their second combat deployment in
Iraq or Afghanistan and some preparing for their third this fall,
evidence is mounting that an exodus of young Army officers may be
looming on the horizon.
It is especially troubling for Pentagon officials that the Army's
pool of young captains, which forms the backbone of infantry and
armored units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be the hardest
hit.
Last year, Army lieutenants and captains left the service at an
annual rate of 8.7% — the highest since 2001. Pentagon officials say
they expect the attrition rate to improve slightly this year. Yet
interviews with several dozen military officers revealed an
undercurrent of discontent within the Army's young officer corps that
the Pentagon's statistics do not yet capture.
Young captains in the Army are looking ahead to repeated combat
tours, years away from their families and a global war that their
commanders tell them could last for decades. Like other college grads
in their mid-20s, they are making decisions about what to do with their
lives.
And many officers, who until recently had planned to pursue
careers in the military, are deciding that it's a future they can't
sign up for.
The officers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan just wrapped up a
year of grueling counterinsurgency operations — a type of combat the
U.S. largely avoided after its struggle in Vietnam and that many in the
Pentagon believe is the new face of war. They were in Iraq during last
spring's uprisings in Fallouja and Najaf, June's transfer of power to
an interim Iraqi government and block-to-block fighting during the
retaking of Fallouja in November.
These officers have, in most cases, more counterinsurgency
experience than any of their superiors. And they are the people the
Army most fears losing.
The officers interviewed for this article are proud of what they
accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they are generally optimistic
that the two nations can eventually emerge as functioning, if unstable,
democracies.
Those just returning from Iraq ended their combat tours on a
positive note with successful parliamentary elections in January, which
had been the singular focus of their deployment.
Yet their pride is tempered by uncertainty about what lies ahead
in an unconventional war in which victory may never be declared.
"The undefined goals of the war on terror are making it really hard for
the Army to keep people right now," Fulton said.
By the time they make captain, young officers are usually
approaching the end of their four- or five-year commitment. Army
spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the attrition rate for junior
officers was not yet alarming, and the Army had several initiatives in
place to help retain those deciding whether to make a career out of the
military.
The Pentagon hopes that by next year, a significant troop
reduction in Iraq will allow the Army to slow the pace of troop
deployments, giving soldiers two years at home for every year in battle.
Yet Pentagon officials admit it is uncertain that this can happen by
2006.
"I still don't know if we can make it," said a senior Army officer
at the Pentagon. "You tell me what Iraq is going to look like next
year."
Meanwhile, the Army is dispatching combat units to Iraq and
Afghanistan after soldiers have had just one year at home, a pace that
is taking a toll around the country.
Timothy Muchmore, a civilian Army official at the Pentagon and a
retired tank officer, said he was worried about an exodus of young
officers. He summed up the problem this way:
"You take a junior officer, you send them overseas for a year.
They win a lot of medals, and they're a hero. But when you send them
back a second time, the odds go up that they won't make it home alive
and it becomes even harder on their family. Are they any more of a hero
for having served a second time? No.
"The guys returning from Iraq and Afghanistan believe they have
done at least the minimum for the security of their country, and they
are proud of their service," he said. "But the world is now their
oyster."
Private-sector pitch
Inside the overheated conference room at the Howard Johnson in
Killeen, Fulton and Heiple listened to a well-rehearsed pitch about
what the world might have to offer.
At the front of the room, Andrew Hollitt, a beefy, gregarious
former Army officer turned headhunter spoke in marketing terms about
how eager private-sector employers were for young, combat-tested
officers and senior noncommissioned officers.
"You are a commodity that brings a tremendous amount to the
table," he told the packed room, sipping from a can of Budweiser. "I
can sell something that I believe in. And it's people like you."
The Lucas Group was not trying to persuade them to leave the Army,
Hollitt said, only to present them with another set of options.
"I am red, white and blue on the inside," the recruiter assured the
capacity crowd.
In a telephone interview after the recruiting session, Hollitt
said he had yet to see the same volume of young soldiers contact the
Lucas Group as he did during the late 1990s, when the military drawdown
forced the Pentagon to slash its numbers and push young officers out of
the service.
At the same time, he said, the pace of Army deployments was
clearly having an effect — and that the quality of those leaving was
very high. "I am seeing the highest caliber of candidates now that I
have seen in five years of doing this," he said. "The companies we work
with are absolutely, unbelievably impressed."
Employers such as General Electric Co., Home Depot Inc. and others
are always on the lookout for managerial talent, Hollitt said, and
mid-level commanders tested in war are considered experienced leaders.
By the time they make captain, he said, the officers usually have
command experience leading an infantry or armor company, which forces
them to make life-and-death decisions on a daily basis.
After the session was over, Heiple and Fulton were wary about what
they had just heard. And it was not that the average starting salaries
of $50,000 to $70,000 were much more than they had earned in Iraq when
combat pay and bonuses were included.
Instead, one of their biggest concerns about working in the
civilian world was that it was "cheesier" and less serious than what
they currently do for a living.
"I kind of worry that the corporate world is a lot like 'Office
Space,' " said Heiple, referring to the 1999 movie that parodied
American office park culture.
Combat experience
The 1st Cavalry Division was considered for the assault on Baghdad
in 2003 but ended up staying stateside as commanders in Washington and
the Middle East decided to pare down the invasion force.
When the division was notified that it would be heading to Iraq in
2004, a year after the fall of Baghdad, the 1st Cav's officers thought
they had missed out on the action.
"I thought we were going to be the third string of the JV," Heiple said.
Far from being over, the war in Iraq had entered its bloodiest
stage, and Heiple and Fulton's battalion was in charge of patrolling
Baghdad's restive Al Rashid district. Their unit had the Sisyphean task
of trying to secure Baghdad's airport highway, the road many in the
battalion called the "shooting gallery" because of the constant attacks
against U.S. troops.
Over time and through grim experience, they learned the brutal rules
that govern counterinsurgency warfare.
They point with a certain amount of pride to a January incident
that occurred soon after the battalion's most respected and
indispensable Iraqi interpreter, Ethar, was assassinated.
Ethar had been lured to an insurgent safe house by another Iraqi
interpreter who had been paid off by insurgents. There, Ethar was
brutally beaten and shot in the head. Soldiers found his body while on
patrol.
News of the death hit the battalion hard, and they planned their
revenge. Acting on information from an Iraqi source, the battalion hit
multiple targets around west Baghdad in a single night, which some of
the battalion's officers only half-jokingly called "the night of
justice."
"We took down the whole cell" in a night, Fulton recalled, capturing or
killing all the insurgents on their target list.
"It was personal, and it felt really good," he added.
Heiple, a native of Jonestown, Pa., said he would not have traded
for anything the experience of leading troops in combat or of earning
the 1st Cavalry's trademark Stetson hat and gold spurs — given to
cavalry soldiers when they have served in a combat zone.
Yet, with these achievements behind him, the Notre Dame graduate
said he was looking for a life with more stability. Heiple decided
while he was in Iraq that he would leave the Army when his commitment
expires next month. He plans to move with his girlfriend to Austin,
where he hopes to attend law school at the University of Texas.
Heiple's decision to leave the Army did not come suddenly. At 26,
he felt his window of opportunity to change careers was closing. The
more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he wanted
to follow a different path.
"I can only wait so long," Heiple said.
Fulton spent eight years of his youth in the Congo, where his
father worked as a bush pilot. His family relocated to Haiti in 1990
and spent three years there before they were evacuated before U.S.
troops landed on the island in 1994.
Fulton then moved to Redlands, Calif. When he was in high school
there, the military piqued his interest and he visited an Army
recruiting station. His test scores led one recruiter to suggest that
he instead apply to West Point. During his senior year, the late Rep.
Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs) nominated Fulton for his military
commission to the armed forces academy in New York state.
Fulton returned from Iraq in March and went on a cruise to Mexico
with his wife during his 30-day leave. His wife, Fulton said, wants him
to leave the military more than anything.
In June, the two will move with their 3-year-old son to Ft. Knox,
Ky., where Fulton will begin a six-month course on commanding armored
units.
He will still have a year left of his Army commitment when the
course is completed, yet Fulton admits that given the Army's current
pace of deployments, he is leaning toward leaving the service.
"If West Point didn't have a five-year commitment," he said, "I'd
probably be pursuing something else right now. I know my wife would
like me to choose something else immediately."
Careers in the balance
A college graduate with an Army ROTC scholarship usually owes four
years of active duty to the military, along with a period in the Army
Reserves or National Guard. A West Point graduate owes five.
Army officials know that if they are able to persuade captains to
remain in uniform a few years past their initial commitment, the odds
are good they will eventually commit to a full 20-year military career.
But in the words of one Army captain, a West Point graduate who
spent 10 months in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 and plans to leave the
Army next year: "A lot of guys making their decision at the five-year
mark are not making their decision for [just] the next three years.
They are making their decision about whether to make a career out of
the military.
"The guys in my age group are looking ahead and deciding that's not a
life they want to live."
Mid-level officers around the country are confronting the same
choice. The 1-34 armor battalion of the 1st Infantry Division returned
last year to Ft. Riley, Kan., after a year in Iraq's so-called Sunni
Triangle, the region of heaviest conflict. The battalion is expecting
to return to Iraq later this year, and many young officers are choosing
to get out before then.
Capt. Eric Emerling, the battalion's fire support officer, is one
of three captains who decided to leave after returning from Iraq.
Emerling said he initially looked forward to a career in the Army. When
he returned, his superiors offered him command of an artillery battery,
a milestone promotion for a career officer.
But he and his wife decided in January that they did not want to
commit to a future of "repeated deployments for the next 13 years."
"What tipped the scale is that I have a 2-year-old daughter. I
want more stability for her," Emerling said by telephone, his little
girl in the background competing for her father's attention. "I missed
the first half of her life. I'm not willing to do that again."
The 27-year-old captain is moving to Connecticut, where he has a
job with a landscaping company. He said he was concerned about the
Army's future, with many of the military's young leaders planning their
exits.
"I see how many people are getting out here at my local unit
level. It's a bit of a worry," he said. "We lost a lot of lieutenants
and captains."
Life outside the zone
Heiple and Fulton live in an apartment complex in Georgetown,
Texas, an Austin suburb 30 miles south of Ft. Hood's main gate. When
searching for housing after they returned from Iraq, they specifically
sought apartments some distance from the base.
Killeen, with its infrastructure catering to thousands of soldiers
and their families, provides constant reminders of military life. But
in Georgetown, a soldier walking the streets in desert camouflage is a
rarity.
The young officers are coming to the end of their post-deployment
"reintegration" period — several weeks of administrative briefings and
counseling sessions before they are allowed to leave post for 30 days
to visit friends and family.
With their feet propped up on a coffee table piled high with
newspapers, DVD cases and back issues of the Economist, Heiple and
Fulton watch "Matrix Revolutions" on the recently purchased 50-inch
flat screen television in the living room of their neighbor — Capt.
Vincent Tuohey, another member of their battalion just back from Iraq.
With distractions such as basketball, bars and new electronic
equipment, there is plenty for the young officers to focus on besides
their time in Iraq, or on the steady stream of violent news out of the
country.
Said Heiple: "You don't purposefully avoid the news. But you don't go
out of your way to find it, either."
Tuohey, a Harvard graduate from Annapolis, Md., who earned a
master's degree from Cambridge University in Britain, served the last
year as an executive officer for a cavalry unit in west Baghdad.
Like all of the soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division who just
returned to Ft. Hood, Tuohey is readjusting to life outside a combat
zone.
He is edgy sitting in traffic, having taught himself in Iraq to
maneuver his Bradley fighting vehicle to avoid city traffic and the
inevitable insurgent attacks. The first time he got into a car when he
returned to Ft. Hood, his heart began racing and he broke out in a
sweat.
Tuohey was a lieutenant during his deployment in Iraq and is proud
that most of the decision-making for counterinsurgency missions fell to
the Army's youngest officers.
"At no time before has the Army had LTs [lieutenants] who have made
decisions like that on a daily basis," he said.
As he sees it, the military now has an entire generation of young
officers who are battle-hardened and knowledgeable about battling
insurgencies.
Even in Iraq, he said, senior commanders were keenly aware of
those officers who might be considering leaving the military and
applied various degrees of pressure to persuade them to remain in
uniform.
They appeal to the sense of mission, Tuohey said, and the sense of
purpose of military life that doesn't exist in the outside world. And
they usually bring up an example of a friend who left the Army only to
regret the decision.
Yet Tuohey, who was promoted to captain upon returning to Ft.
Hood, said he was not sure whether he would stay in the Army when his
commitment ended next year. He said he was tempted to work on Wall
Street.
It's not the money he's after. It's the fact that an Army that was
gutted after the Cold War was promising him a future of perpetual
deployments fighting a war that could last for decades.
That is not a future he is sure he can commit to.
"What's the end point?" he asked. "When do you declare victory?"
