At a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing earlier this year, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Robert Wilkie introduced a universal retention policy on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD) and at the behest of Defense Secretary Mattis.
In an attempt to gain control over the “staggering” number of non-deployable service members within its ranks, DoD ordered each military service to implement a “deploy or get out” strategy.
According to Wilkie, somewhere in the ballpark of 286,000 military members are considered non-deployable; meaning 13-14 percent of the Nation’s total force is unable to deploy worldwide for one reason or another. The new policy explicitly states, effective immediately, any service member who is unable to deploy for 12 consecutive months or more will be processed for administrative separation or referred to the disability evaluation system. While each service has until October 1 to begin processing these service members, they can begin this process immediately. They also aren’t required to wait until individual service members have been non-deployable for the full 12 months…they can begin the separation process at their own discretion.
BOTTOM LINE: If your service member falls somewhere in that 13-14 percent of troops that aren’t able to deploy, there’s a target on their back. They either get deployable or get out.
Who The Policy Impacts
You may be wondering what it means to be “non-deployable.” If a service member has a medical condition that may take more than 30 days to heal from or if they are facing legal or disciplinary issues, they would be in a non-deployable status.
Out of the 286,000 service members deemed non-deployable at any given time, around 99,000 are for administrative reasons (such as missing their regular dental exams or their annual physical health assessments), most of which are an easy fix. 20,000 are unable to deploy due to pregnancy or post-partum recovery, however the policy gives these service member’s a pass (as they rightfully should). The remaining 116,000+ are “grounded” due to short or long-term injuries.
On the surface, the purpose of the new policy makes sense.
BOTTOM LINE: It simply isn’t fair for a small percentage of service members to be carrying the largest percentage of the combat burden. This whole policy was designed to maintain war-fighting readiness and a lethal military force. Part of that means we need to give all of those service members who’ve been doing back-to-back deployments for the last 16+ years WAY more dwell time than they’ve been getting. I get it. BUT, maybe this doesn’t need to happen on the backs of the other ill or injured service members who WANT to join their units in combat and feel guilty EVERY SINGLE DAY that they can’t deploy. Maybe we keep faith with those who were injured in training accidents or those whose bodies have been beaten down and aren’t given the opportunity to bounce back just yet.
How Did We Get Here?
Undersecretary Wilkie presented a very interesting analogy when attempting to explain the magnitude of the retention issue to the Senate subcommittee. He stated online retail giant, Amazon, wouldn’t be the largest company in the world if CEO, Jeff Bezos, was told that 13-14 percent of his workforce wasn’t able to perform their duties during the holiday rush.
While we all realize comparing the DoD to an online conglomerate like Amazon is akin to comparing apples with oranges, let’s play along anyway.
The way I see it, if Amazon actually experienced this type of phenomenon within its own workforce, chances are, Mr. Bezos would work tirelessly to figure out WHY it was happening. And…wait for it…he probably would have done something to correct the underlying issue impacting the readiness and efficacy of his workforce.
Wilkie had a few ideas of his own as to why such a large number of service members are non-deployable. His first theory is the number of medical waivers granted during peak war times in support of OIF/OEF efforts. “The medical conditions that those service members had when they received those waivers followed them into the service as they progressed through their careers. We have to address that,” Wilkie said.
So basically, troops who wouldn’t have passed medical muster under normal (i.e. peace time) circumstances are one of the many scapegoats in this scenario. Basically, DoD is saying: “Hey, I know we waived your (insert medical condition here) so you could do our bidding and we accepted you as one of our own, but here’s the thing….we don’t want you anymore. BYE FELICIA.”
Wilkie proposed a few other theories and issues as well, such as inadequate training and fitness programs and “lax leadership” that didn’t follow up with their troop’s medical or dental issues.
But there’s one more potential culprit contributing to this large number of non-deployable service members….Our very own Military Health System.
A Major Disconnect
Defense Secretary Mattis himself admitted that the military’s retention practices mostly can be associated with the medical health of the force.
Now, I think it’s pretty safe to say the vast majority of us have a Military Treatment Facility (MTF) story. We’ve all experienced healthcare access issues at one time or another; not being able to get appointments when needed, waiting months for a specialty appointment, etc. Unfortunately, it’s pretty commonplace in our culture…(bordering on cliché’ to be honest). But we’re not the only ones who experience access issues. Our service members do too. While not all MTF’s are created equal, there’s still a lot of work to be done in our military health system. Either way, our troops also experience significant delays in receiving their own health care.
BOTTOM LINE: If our troops aren’t receiving the care they need…if their physical and mental health needs aren’t being addressed timely and are made to worsen as their care is delayed and delayed and delayed AGAIN…then it’s time to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. It’s time DoD makes sure its own house is in order before allowing a broken health system to dictate who stays and who goes.
The REAL twist to the story is this: DoD says we DO NOT have a ready force (hence this new retention policy), while the Defense Health Agency (DHA) is saying that our force IS within readiness standards!
In fact, in a recent report to Congress on May 9th, the DHA actually reported an INCREASE in medical readiness! According to the report “The overall medical readiness of the total force was at 87 percent…exceeding the strategic goal of 85 percent. Dental readiness, at 96 percent, exceeded the MHS goal of 95 percent.”
Am I missing something? DoD says 116,000 service members ARE NOT medically fit to deploy and are a drain on our country’s military might. DHA says everything’s good to go. How are we to maintain a lethal fighting force when the agencies CHARGED with that maintenance aren’t even on the same page? (See what I’m getting at?)
BOTTOM LINE: If these non-deployable service members aren’t doing their part, then fine…BOOT ‘EM. If they’re just malingering, then fine…start those separation proceedings. But if they’re doing all that they can to become worldwide deployable while our broken health system lets them fall through the cracks? Then the onus is on YOU, DoD, to keep faith with our military members and do YOUR OWN due diligence…and you can start by putting your Military Health System on notice.
