MOS retention. What is the Army doing to retain soldiers in crucial/star MOS's?

2014-02-05T11:25:55-05:00

I am an All-Source Intelligence Analyst (35F) and my MOS has been a star MOS from what I have been told over 5 years now. The biggest problem I have heard from sergeants are the opportunities for soldiers in my MOS after only 3 years experience in the Army. Soldiers are able to ETS and still have 2 years left on their TS/SCI clearance and a contracting company or a 3 letter organization will pick them up quick and pay them upwards of 70k-120k for deploying and stateside jobs are still 55k-75k in some areas. I can definitely see why soldiers do their 3 year contract and get out but, is the Army seeing this and working on a way to retain these soldiers?

Response by SFC James Baber made Feb 5 at 2014 5:18 PM

2014-02-05T17:18:21-05:00

SPC,

The big Army does see this, that is the reason for it being a star MOS, as well as other MOSs within the star listings, with many Soldiers departing for the lucrative outside careers, the Army tries to retain either the ones they have or get other people to re-class via reenlistment for bonuses, but they are still falling short for the needs that is why the MOS remains in the system as a star necessity job. Certain MOSs will always be in this category for the reason that many people don't believe in making careers out of the military anymore like they used to, so that is part of the issue, the other part is that the politics of certain jobs pushes people out the door as well, with a toxic environment is some jobs, people do their time and hit the door running.

Hope this helps to explain some of what you may be seeing and puts a different perspective on it.