Army Drawdown Continues: 1,100 Captains to Be Cut....as Obamas New Army Swarms Over The Border

[link to www.military.com]
The Army drawdown continues this week, when about 1,100 Army captains will receive word that their military careers are about to end. Another 500 majors will get the same news in early July.

The cuts were planned by officer separation and early retirement boards that convened this spring to review 19,000 active-duty officers for possible early separation. It's all part of the Army's effort to smoothly trim down to a number that, thanks to federal budgetary uncertainty, remains unclear.

There were about 28,000 captains and nearly 17,000 majors in the Army on April 30, according to Defense Department statistics.

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Campbell, who sat down with Stars and Stripes recently to discuss Army end-strength cuts, said the separations aren't something anyone wanted. Good officers who've risked their lives to serve the nation will have to leave, he said.

"They're in the Army now, and in other times they'd probably continue to stay in the Army," he said. "But this is not normal times."

During the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army had about 570,000 troops and has since dropped to about 510,000. The current cuts, which also include 500 noncommissioned officers selected early this year for separation, are aimed at producing an end strength of 490,000 troops -- the Army's previous target.

But the force will almost certainly get smaller. The most recent defense budget proposal from the Pentagon, now working its way through Congress, calls for an Army of some 450,000 soldiers.

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