Chapter 5: Manning the Army - DAHSUM FY 1981Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 19815Manning the ArmyIn fiscal year 1981 the Army continued to reverse a varietyof unfavorable personnel trends that had set in after the end of the VietnamWar. Although in the previous fiscal year the active Army had an averageundermanning of 16,900, it was only 164 below the active duty strengthauthorized by Congress. In fiscal year 1981 the active Army not only met itsoverall recruiting goals but also retained, at year's end, more militarypersonnel than programmed, in part because of the anticipated large fiscal year1982 pay raise as well as other benefits.The active Army entered fiscal year 1981 with an authorizedend strength of 775,300 men and women. To capitalize on its improved recruitingand retention rates, the Army requested and received congressional authorizationto increase the active duty end strength of 780,000. The active Army actuallyachieved an end strength of 781,042, or 1,042 above the final authorization and5,742 above the initial authorization.During fiscal year 1981 the active Army was manned on theaverage at 100.6 percent of authorizations, with an average overmanning of4,100 for the year. On 30 September 1981, the active Army was manned as follows.

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781,042The growth in the active Army paralleled increases in theArmy Reserve and Army National Guard. At the end of fiscal year 1981 the ArmyReserve reported an increase in end strength of 25,896 (the total of ready,standby, and retired reserves). The Army National Guard reported an end strengthincrease of 25,742.

The Army's primary recruiting goal for the fiscal year was toincrease the enlistments of high school graduates, who tend to78have more stable military careers than nongraduates. Inrecruiting high school graduates without prior service, the Army achieved aTotal Army accession of 73.2 percent, well beyond the congressional mandate of65 percent and in excess of its own fiscal year objective of 72.2 percent. Theactive Army was especially successful in this regard, with 80.3 percent of itsenlistees without prior service having earned a high school diploma, up from54.3 percent in fiscal year 1980. The Army's improvement was greater than thatof any other service. The table below presents the Total Army enlistedaccessions for fiscal year 1981. Army ReserveNPS Males22,8.1NPS Females7,7579,776126.0Prior Service33,03.9NPS High School Grads18,07.8Category IV NPS30% Ceiling29.9A key incentive in the Army's recruiting program is the offerof cash bonuses. In November 1980 the Army raised the amount of its cash bonusesto enlistees in designated skill areas.

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The new maximum bonus of $5000 wasoffered to high school graduates in categories I-III on the AFQT who enlistedfor four years' service in one of eleven designated combat arms militaryoccupational specialties (MOSs) or one designated military intelligencespecialty. Maximum bonuses were also raised, but to lower levels, for similarenlistees in nine additional MOSs; three new MOSs were added to the bonuseligibility list for the first time: 93E (meteorological observer), 98G(Spanish-American linguist), and 21G (Pershing electronic material specialist).Active Army enlistment bonus payments totaled $56.8 million for the fiscal yearand had a marked effect on recruitment. Whereas in fiscal year791980 only 18 percent of the new recruits who entered thecritical MOSs were high school graduates in categories I-III, in fiscalyear 1981 the figure was 41 percent.Early in the fiscal year the Army also began to implement along-range plan for recruiting and retaining qualified language specialists. 675,083In fiscal year 1981 the Army's officer program, like itsenlisted program, achieved notable successes.

Although the Army fell short ofits accession goal by 522 officers, the end strength of the officer corps roseby 3,259 to a total of 101,477. Officer retention, especially of lieutenants andcaptains, was outstanding.In accordance with the fiscal year 1981, Department ofDefense Authorization Bill, the number of general officers in all servicesdeclined by 4 percent (in the Army, from 432 to 415). The following table breaksdown the actual officer end strength by grade as of 30 September 1981. United States Military Academy952Reserve Officers' Training Corps3,981Officer Candidate School753Chaplain, Judge Advocate General, Army Medical Department2,282Transfers from Other Components (including Individual Ready Reserve)471Direct Appointments, Reappointments, and Interservice Transfers838Warrant Officers1,917Total11,194As in previous years, the Reserve Officers' Training Corps(ROTC) furnished the largest single group of new active duty officers: 3,981 outof a total ROTC production of 6,174 officers.

Average enrollment incollege-level ROTC programs increased 2.7 percent over the previous fiscal year,from 63,326 to 69,663. The nation's changing attitude toward military serviceaccounts for some growth, but successful management also played a role. The Armycontinued to increase the number of ROTC units at the nation's colleges,universities, and high schools, and it further developed the ROTC-SelectedReserve Simultaneous Membership Program (SMP). The Army also awarded the first1,035 of the 5,500 new ROTC scholarships authorized by Congress in September1980.The Expand the Base program, begun in fiscal year 1980, callsfor the phased opening of extension centers, consisting of three officerinstructors and one NCO, at colleges and universities that have not previouslyoffered ROTC. The most successful centers will then be elevated to fulldetachment (host) status (five officers, four NCOs, and one civilian). In fiscalyear 1980 forty-one extension centers were opened, and about 2,500 students(about 1,000 more than the Army expected) enrolled.

In fiscal year 1981forty-eight new centers were opened, and eight old centers were elevated to hoststatus. By fiscal year 1983 the pro-89gram is scheduled to have elevated twenty-eight more centers,creating a total of 315 host detachments. An important feature of the expansionprogram is the assignment of an Army Reserve or Army National Guard officer toeach of the host detachments, so that most of the 4,000 additional officersexpected to be produced each year by the expansion and other initiatives can bechanneled into units of the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. In fiscalyear 1981 fifty Army Reserve officers and fifty-one Army National Guard officerswere assigned to host institutions.The Army ROTC-Selected Reserve Simultaneous MembershipProgram (SMP) continued to be highly successful in fiscal year 1981. Subject tocertain limitations, SMP permits eligible enlisted personnel assigned to a troopprogram unit of the Army National Guard or the Army Reserve to enter theAdvanced Course (Military Science III and IV) of the ROTC academic program, andallows eligible ROTC Advance Course cadets to enlist in and serve as officertrainees with guard or reserve units.

Participants in the program drill withtheir National Guard or Army Reserve units as officer trainees at the rank ofcadet and are paid in the grade and years of service attained (but not less thanthe grade of E-5). Participants also receive ROTC training as well as asubsistence allowance of $100 per month for up to twenty months. On completingthe ROTC program, SMP participants are commissioned and assigned to either anArmy Reserve or National Guard unit, pending graduation from college.

Upongraduation, these officers are assigned active duty, reserve forces duty, oreducational delay, depending on the needs of the Army.By the end of fiscal year 1980, the SMP program could boastof more than 2,000 participants. In fiscal year 1981 this number grew to morethan 5,000, even while enrollment in the ROTC Advanced Course grew only 1.6percent, based on opening year enrollment. Although most participants werealready enrolled in ROTC when recruited into the SMP program, future emphasiswill be placed on recruiting enlisted reserve component members who have had noROTC training.Improvements in officer retention paralleled those in officeraccession.

Officer retention in fiscal year 1981 continued the favorable trendof the previous five years. There were fewer losses among all types of officersthan in the past fiscal year. In 1981, 2,248 officers resigned or were releasedfrom active duty, compared to 2,903 in 1980. Voluntary retirements also showed adrop, down to 3,983 after a four-year high of 2,637 in 1980.90Company grade losses were 3,793, compared with 4,226 in 1980.Despite these improvements, the Army still experienced officer shortages in someengineering, scientific, and technical specialties and in the warrant officeraviation skills.

In fiscal year 1981, 1,100 authorized officer jobs wentunfilled. Congress has authorized continuation pay to improve the retention ofscientists and engineers.One long-standing problem area in the officer force, therecruitment and retention of medical personnel, showed some improvement infiscal year 1981, despite continuing shortfalls. Recruitment and retentionefforts resulted in an even greater increase in the number of year-end activeduty Medical Corps officers (from 4,627 to 4,909), but critical shortages stillexisted in several specialties, such as orthopedic surgery. The number ofofficers in the Medical Corps and Nurse Corps still fell far short of minimumpeacetime requirements.Passage of the Uniformed Services Health Professions SpecialPay Act of 1980 has had a generally positive effect on retention. Manyphysicians no longer feel that military pay and benefits are a drawback tomilitary service.

But civilian pay is still considerably higher in some surgicalspecialties. As a result of increased pay and other management initiatives, theretention rate for first term physicians (other than volunteers) now exceeds 30percent and may rise to and stabilize around 33 percent in the near future.Volunteer physicians tend to have a much higher retention rate, approaching 70percent. Since half of the present Medical Corps strength has entered activeduty since 1978, it is unclear whether these retention rates will continue overa period of years. If they continue, however, the Army should have less troublemaintaining the strength of the Medical Corps.To provide the armed forces with an officer management policythat is uniform, equitable, and tailored to contemporary manpower requirements,the Department of Defense and Congress in fiscal year 1981 finally agreed,after sixteen years of effort, on the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA).Congress passed it on 21 November 1980, the President signed it on 12 December,and it went into effect on 15 September 1981. Although DOPMA affects allcommissioned officers, including generals, its primary effects will be, first,to create a single promotion system for all field grade officers on active dutyand, second, to create eventually an active Army field grade officer corps thatis all Regular Army.

The new system will replace the old dual system ofpermanent Regular Army (RA) ranks and temporary Army of the United States (AUS)ranks as well as an91active Army field grade officer corps that since the VietnamWar has consisted of about 7 percent Other Than Regular Army (OTRA) officers.On the new active duty list, officers will be grouped intocompetitive categories for promotion. These categories will be formallyestablished in early fiscal year 1982, but they are expected to be the same asthey were before DOPMA.

They are as follows: (1) Army, which includes officersin specialties 00 through 54 and 69 through 97; (2) Judge Advocate General'sCorps; (3) Chaplain Corps; (4) Medical Corps; (5) Dental Corps; (6) Army NurseCorps; (7) Medical Service Corps; (8) Army Medical Specialist Corps, combinedwith Medical Corps for general officer promotion; and (9) Veterinary Corps.Under the old officer management system, OTRA officers heldtemporary AUS ranks for active duty purposes and generally were separated orreduced in rank before RA officers. RA officers on active duty held both theirpermanent RA rank and an AVS rank, which usually rose before the RA rank.

Activeduty RA officers competed on the same list with active duty OTRA officers forAUS ranks, and had to achieve promotions that kept their RA rank within range oftheir AUS rank, or face involuntary separation. Both RA and OTRA officers onactive duty could retire at their AUS rank even if it were higher than their RAor reserve rank. While retired RA officers who later worked as federal civilianemployees had to accept a reduction in their military retirement pay, reserveofficers and regular officers retired for combat disability who later worked ascivilian federal employees could draw both their full military pension and theirfull civilian employee salary, subject to an overall limit equal to the currentcompensation of civilian Executive Level V employees ($57,500 in fiscal year1981).

DOPMA leaves intact the main retirement provisions of the DualCompensation Act and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, but it requiresfar-reaching changes in the active duty treatment of regular and OTRA officers.Under DOPMA provisions, the Army will replace the dual systemin the active Army field grades with a single active duty list, which willeventually consist of an all-regular force. As of 15 September 1981, theeffective date of DOPMA, the temporary (AUS) rank of field-grade active Armyofficers became their permanent rank, eliminating the temporary quality of theAUS ranks. In addition, a number of active Army OTRA field grade officers onactive duty before 1 October 1981 were scheduled to be offered integration intothe Regular Army. Active Army92OTRA lieutenants and captains who start active duty after 15September 1981 will, if promoted to major, have to accept integration into theRegular Army or else leave active duty within ninety days. Those active Army OTRA lieutenants and captains who started active duty before 15 September 1981may, if promoted to major after 30 September 1981, decline the Regular Armyintegration and continue on active duty to maximum tenure, subject to the needsof the Army and on the condition that they maintain a standard schedule ofpromotions.These active Army OTRA officers, however, have severalincentives to convert to the Regular Army. First, they will be eligible for upto thirty years' tenure in the Regular Army if they can advance to colonel,whereas the usual active duty tenure for OTRA officers is only twenty years.Second, they can take advantage of DOPMA's modification of the traditionalup-or-out system in the Regular Army. Under the new system, RA captains who aretwice passed up for promotion may be selectively continued to a maximum oftwenty years' service; majors who are twice not selected for promotion may becontinued to a maximum of twenty-four years' service.

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OTRA captains and majorsin this predicament will probably obtain less liberal terms for selectivecontinuation, such as those offered in the Selective Continuation Program, newlyimplemented in fiscal year 1980. This program permitted certain non-selectedofficers to continue in active service for three years or until they areeligible for retirement, whichever comes first.

As a third incentive, duringreductions in force, regular officers will be separated only after OTRA officersin their competitive area.The eventual effect of these DOPMA-induced changes will be tocreate an all-regular officers corps in the field grades of the active Army,once all active Army OTRA officers who have declined the Regular Army conversionhave retired.DOPMA also contains other provisions that will have asignificant effect on Army personnel policy. Under the DOPMA realignment of theranks of field grade officers, the Army has until the end of fiscal year 1983 toreduce the number of majors and lieutenant colonels. DOPMA authorizes thedecentralization to the field of promotions to captain, but in fiscal year 1981the Army decided to postpone its plans to implement this provision.

DOPMAmandates minimum time-in-grade standards for due course officer promotions:93. To First Lieutenant18 monthsTo Captain2 yearsTo Major3 yearsTo Lieutenant Colonel3 yearsTo Colonel3 yearsDOPMA also provides that an officer retire in the highestgrade in which he served on active duty for six or more months; except that toretire voluntarily in a grade above major, the officer must have served onactive duty at least three years in that grade.

Prior law did not require anyminimum period of service for an officer to retire voluntarily in his permanentgrade; but for retirement in a temporary grade that was higher than theofficer's permanent grade, Army policy required six months' satisfactoryservice in the higher grade. DOPMA doubles the maximum pay for involuntaryseparation, from $15,000 to $30,000. It also establishes uniform constructivecredit rules for all the services that will improve Army accession of highlyeducated and technically trained officers, especially in the Medical Departmentand Judge Advocate General Corps. To allow for the mandated conversion of activeArmy officers with reserve commissions to the Regular Army, DOPMA increases theauthorized strength of the Regular Army officer corps from 49,500 to 63,000.The transition to an all-Regular Army field grade officercorps in the active Army may take a decade or more.

DOPMA is the most completerevision of officer personnel management since the Officer Personnel Act of1947.In fiscal year 1981 the Department of Defense, with DOPMA nowenacted, began work on companion legislation for the management of reserveofficers. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, ReserveAffairs, and Logistics) began to draft the Reserve Officer Personnel ManagementAct (ROPMA). The department organized a steering committee of general and flagofficers representing all reserve components to resolve interservicedifferences and review the basic areas of proposed legislation.

After twomeetings in fiscal year 1981, the steering committee recommended that theproposed legislation address the problem of recruiting professionals into thereserves. Since DOPMA has constrained the services in appointing officers ingrades above second lieutenant, the reserve components anticipate even moreproblems in recruiting civilian professionals and appointing them in the highergrades. It appears that the reserve components will request considerable leewayin granting con-94structive service credit to new reserve appointees,particularly to nonmedical and nondental professionals whose civilianexperience warrants an appointment in a grade higher than major.In its continuing effort to improve the professionaldevelopment of commissioned officers, the Army made several changes in itsOfficer Personnel Management System in fiscal year 1981.

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It created SpecialtyCode (SC) 70, Intelligence Management, to identify multifunctional, senior(normally 06, but in no instance below 05) managerial positions in intelligence,primarily at the national or major command level. It fused SC 76, ArmamentMateriel Management, and SC 77, Tank-Ground Materiel Management to form SC 91,Maintenance Management. Also merged were SC 87, Marine and Terminal Operations,and SC 88, Highway and Rail Operations, to form SC 95, TransportationManagement. SC 52, Atomic Energy, was redesignated Nuclear Weapons.During fiscal year 1981 staff elements of the Office ofDeputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, the Military Personnel Center, and thespecial branches continued to develop the Officer Force Management Plan,concentrating on synthesizing DOPMA constraints with projected force structurerequirements for the 1980s. In a related development, the Office of theAssistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs took the leadin planning for a fiscal year 1983 implementation of FORECAST, an automatedinformation system designed to provide the Army with a comprehensive officermanagement and analysis tool. During fiscal year 1981 a FORECAST Technical WorkGroup, consisting of representatives from the Military Personnel Center, theTraining and Doctrine Command, and the offices of the Deputy Chief of Staff forPersonnel and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and ReserveAffairs, selected the contractors to write the functional description of thesystem, helped them in their work, and prepared for the system development tobe completed in fiscal year 1982.