Navy Officer Exodus: Is There an Exodus of our Best and Brightest? Should we be Concerned?

LT Todd Penrod, USN is an active duty lieutenant with 10 years of commissioned service and 17 years enlisted service. Serving in first department head tour afloat as the operations officer with prior tours as weapons officer, electronic material officer and system test officer. LT Todd Penrod has previously served as a limited duty officer, now unrestricted line officer with service in 6 ships on numerous deployments and have served in 3 wardrooms.

A great article by Tim Kane in the Atlantic and follow on direction by Galrahn has caused me to think about how this could impact the Navy, if at all. I think a few real premises should be established first. I think understanding why people join the service or why they make it a career and especially what happens to those that leave early will prove fundamental in carrying this discussion further. To discuss a problem, one first must determine the problem, correct?

Why do we join?

During my senior enlisted tenure, I spent 3 years molding the minds of our newest Sailors at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois in the mid 1990's. We always asked new recruits why they joined the Navy and easily 8 out of 10 said they joined for educational benefits. That answer is probably only somewhat different from the officer corps, but in many cases not so much. For example, all who enter a service academy or an ROTC program do so with an understanding of a payback in years of service. Below are some other typical reasons for joining:

• call to service
• sense of duty
• professional challenges
• financial stability
• benefits
• global experience
• family tradition
• employment
• experience (mariner/engineer/logistician/doctor)

We must come to grips with the fact that some officers join with the express intent to parlay the time served and experience/education gained into a different field out of uniform. That is okay and should be expected. Manpower analysts could not fathom everyone trying to stay for a full 20 years or more. I offer my uncle as a classic example of this: he joined the Navy's medical service corps during Vietnam. He used his time for experience and to pay back some serious loans. Sailed in submarines. Left the Navy and had a wonderful career as a pediatrician. My example can be applied across the spectrum of engineers, lawyers, doctors, logisticians and even pilots. Most, if not all, leave with a great sense of pride and remain positive about their service for years and decades following. Many even maintain some loose affiliation through organizations such as the Navy League.

Why do we stay for a career?

While the original prompt focused on the reasons why people leave the service prematurely, we should also look at why those that stay do so. The reason I have stayed so long is that the Navy keeps offering me new jobs and increased responsibility; professional development. I am not saying I am among the best and brightest, just offering up some personal insight to go along with the ones listed below:

• continue with service
• benefits
• financial stability
• professional growth
• chance at executive level leadership

There are several factors at play in the discussion of the reasons behind an apparent exodus of great leaders and thinkers from the Navy (military). But as I alluded to above, we cannot possibly think that the best and brightest commissioned officers (all of them) are going to stay on active duty for 20, 25, 30 or more years, can we? Do we really want that? If we kept those brilliant minds in that left early, would they have had legitimate places to go fill? What if we accessed 1,000 Hyman G. Rickover's? How long could we keep them challenged? How long could we keep them in uniform? Suppose we changed our methodology of promotions and they all were 'deep selects' up through Captain (0-6)...what then? I do not want to insinuate that we should not recruit and retain the Hyman G. Rickover's of the future...we must continue to strive for that mark. I am simply stating that it is probably ridiculous that we should think that we can contain 1,000 of them, let alone one.

Best and Brightest. What next?

Although the article in the Atlantic did not really specify the types of fields it considered as the private sector, time should be spent in determining where these men and women are landing jobs out of uniform. How many stay affiliated with the reserves, government contracting or "private industry" associated with DoD? Conversely, what percentage makes a clean break from the military and government, to include politics and civil service (local, state, and/or federal)? However, even if they make a complete break and land a job as a professor at a liberal university or as a software engineer at Google or even become entrepreneurial and start their own business, who is to say that is an undesirable turn of events? If really great leaders and smart minds leave earlier than "we" hoped, so what? I wish them well and look forward to hearing about their future endeavors. I do not think for a minute that trying to address the myriad reasons officers leave early (as compared to a career) will change the attitudes of future early departures. The Navy cannot fundamentally appease the masses; the Navy can only work to offer challenging and rewarding service for those that desire this lifestyle.

The opinions and views expressed in this post are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Department of Defense, the US Navy, or any other agency.