The Navy's Quota-Based Enlisted Retention Board

Navy parents, spouses and friends do not like what is happening with our sailors who are affected by the Quota-Based Enlisted Retention Board. It hurts when dreams are dashed and plans are thwarted by down-sizing, regardless of the organization making the changes.

When our loved ones joined the Navy, their families also joined. We felt their pre-deployment jitters and even though we couldn't go with them, we felt every day of every deployment as keenly as they. While our family members were securing the seas, preparing for war and planning for peace, those left at home assumed their domestic duties. They sacrificed comfort and convenience; we sacrificed our time with those we cared most about. No longer able to discuss family matters or share jokes, we did what we could to "hold down our forts" without our helpmates.

Even Navy moms and dads felt a sense of loss with deployments. Parents have always suffered when their children struggled. The tears of our offspring stain our hearts, if  not our faces. As berthing and barracks filled with our sons and daughters, our nests emptied. Proud that our sailors were serving our country and protecting our rights, we lived vicariously through their journeys and we ached for them, when their careers adversely affected their relationships, sleep habits or living arrangements.

It's natural for the families of those sailors who have been involuntarily separated from the United States Navy to be outraged.

According to the Bureau of Naval Personell:

   UNPRECEDENTED RETENTION AND REDUCED ATTRITION RATES ACROSS THE NAVY HAVE  RESULTED IN A REQUIREMENT TO REBALANCE THE FORCE. THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOARD  IS TO REDUCE OVERMANNING IN RATINGS PROJECTED TO BE OVER 103% MANNED IN  FY-12.  REBALANCING OUR MANNING WILL IMPROVE ADVANCEMENT RATES AND INCREASE OPPORTUNITY FOR HIGH PERFORMING SAILORS TO RECEIVE IN-RATE REENLISTMENT  QUOTAS BY REDUCING THE STRAIN ON PERFORM TO SERVE.

The document states that personnel chosen for early separation are encouraged to apply for conversion to an undermanned rating.

  SAILORS SELECTED FOR CONVERSION WILL RECEIVE PCS ORDERS TO TRANSFER TO  A-SCHOOL OR TO FILL A VACANCY IN THEIR NEW RATING BY THE END OF FY -12.  APPLICATIONS FOR CONVERSION MUST BE RECEIVED BY 15 JUNE 2011 TO BE  CONSIDERED.

 These sailors are also encouraged to "affiliate with the Navy Reserve," according to the document; this is little relief to those sailors who joined the Navy with plans to retire with benefits after 20 years.

SAILORS SEPARATED BY THIS BOARD WILL HAVE ACCESS TO
THE NAVY'STRANSITION ASSISTANCE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (TAMP),
PER REF L, WHICH PROVIDESEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE, RELOCATION
ASSISTANCE FOR SEPARATING MEMBERSSTATIONED OVERSEAS, AND
OTHER BENEFITS FOR MEMBERS WHO ARE INVOLUNTARILY SEPARATED.

SAILORS INTERESTED IN AFFILIATING WITH THE RESERVES MAY ALSO
TAKE ADVANTAGE OFTHE SERVICES OFFERED BY THE CAREER
TRANSITION OFFICE.

This knowledge is of little comfort to the families of sailors who will now have to join the hundreds of thousands of other unemployed people in a world of jobs that have already scaled back and are working skeletal crews.

THE DECISION TO CONDUCT THIS BOARD WAS MADE AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION  OF ALL OPTIONS FOR REBALANCING THE FORCE.  WE ARE COMMITTED TO RETAINING OUR  VERY BEST SAILORS WITH THE PROPER BALANCE OF SKILLS, SENIORITY AND EXPERIENCE  TO MEET THE NAVY CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE. LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS MUST BE ENGAGED TO ASSIST SAILORS WITH CONVERSION AND  TRANSITION OPTIONS.

Best wishes to the sailors who have served faithfully, expecting to retire in a few years. You do have experience and skills to offer employees that many other candidates might not possess. Stay strong!

Sailors Deserve Better!

People join the military for many reasons. Some join for a sense of family; others, for a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves. They have said they wanted experience, while some hoped to travel. Expectant young fathers have wrestled for years over which is most important: marriage vows or military oaths. Years ago, the military was an option for troubled young men told by families or authorities they needed discipline. For generations, people have run to the service to get away from something, searching for something.

My father was drafted into service at the height of World War II and served a single four-year term. He had no interest in making the Army Air Corps his career. Fortunate that he never had to serve in the trenches, he felt he could provide for his family better as a civilian.

A little more than twenty years later, the United States Marine Corps drafted my oldest brother, who went from Parris Island to Vietnam. He finished his second term in North Carolina, then decided he didn't want to reenlist.

My youngest brother, who was born nineteen years after the Marine * yes, my parents populated the entire boomer generation* enlisted into the National Guard before deciding to make the military his way of life. He joined the Navy full time and retired after twenty years. My sister's husband also retired from the Navy. Numerous cousins also retired from military careers.

The next generation in my family has its share of military personnel, covering nearly every branch. Enlisting into service, they swore oaths and signed documents promising and expecting certain things from the contract. Sailors, as all military personnel, make many sacrifices and their families sacrifice much, to support their sailors. In November, more than 15,000 sailors and their families are outraged when they learned from the Enlisted Retention Board that they are being "involuntarily separated from the United States Navy."

Emily Anelli, a Proud Navy Wife insists It's not over for her sailor. She asks,

Why is it 2,947 sailors serving more than 7 and less than 15 years are suddenly being pushed out?

She's not the first Navy Wife to complain that her husband, halfway to retirement, is being denied that for which he has dutifully and faithfully sacrificed and proudly served.

I agree with Mrs. Anelli when she pleads:

It is only fair to let the 2,947 sailors finish their contracts. Honor the benefits they have worked so hard for, respect the work they have done and uphold the contract between the government and these sailors.

Mrs. Anelli states that her husband was approved for reenlistment December 2010 with a ceremony in January 2011. A year later, he learned that his service is no longer required. What changed? Why is it that the government suddenly finds him redundant? Why not allow him to complete his contract? If he had decided to opt out of his end of the contract he might be considered AWOL.

Can't we hold the government to the same standards to which it expects its personnel?  If the military chooses to dismiss members in the same way a corporation might dismiss employees during a downsize, what recourse do those members have when a contract is broken?

Our sailors deserve better. Let those who want to retire, do so. Give them their benefits, not a severance slip.