FUNCTIONAL FITNESS: IMPROVING RETENTION AND FIGHTING “BRAIN DRAIN”

Paul Kearney, Dennis Halleran 

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In fact, this article shows that the core tension isn’t between basic branches and functional areas, but between functional areas and leaving the Army.

The contemporary U.S. Army faces significant challenges in retaining high-quality officer talent. Studies indicate that only 47% of company-grade officers continue service beyond their initial active-duty service obligation), with particularly acute losses among West Point graduates and ROTC scholarship recipients—precisely those officers in whom the army has invested most heavily. The reserve components have long had a retention crisis, particularly for command billets. The retention crisis has prompted re-examination of the factors driving talented officers to pursue civilian careers, compensation differentials, limited career autonomy, family strain, and misalignment between individual talents and organizational assignments frequently cited as primary concerns.

Against this backdrop, critics have raised concerns about the Army’s functional area specialization program. Some, like David Barno have suggested it creates “brain drain” from basic combat arms branches like infantry, armor, and field artillery with the best officers from basic branches. Others like R.D. Hooker Jr. suggest that officers who go to functional areas are marginal performers, those who want to avoid the “hard” jobs in combat arms to coast with minimal effort, or both. These opposing viewpoints are asserted without empirical evidence. This article tests both assertions. Recent pilot surveys suggest that rather than depleting talent or providing safe haven for “quiet quitters,” functional areas serve as a critical retention mechanism that preserves institutional knowledge and maintains the army’s competitive advantage for both the service at large and for the basic branches. In fact, this article shows that the core tension isn’t between basic branches and functional areas, but between functional areas and leaving the Army.

OPMS and the Origin of Functional Areas