West Point grads exit service at high rate

[Gold Metal Flake]

WASHINGTON -- Recent graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point are choosing to leave active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, a sign to many military specialists that repeated tours in Iraq are prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers.

According to statistics compiled by West Point, of the 903 Army officers commissioned upon graduation in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service last year -- 35 percent at the conclusion of their five years of required service, and another 11 percent over the next six months. And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show.

The figures mark the lowest retention rate of graduates after the completion of their mandatory duty since at least 1977, with the exception of members of three classes in the late 1980s who were encouraged to leave as the military downsized following the end of the Cold War.

snip

"Iraq is exerting very strong influence on the career intentions of junior officers," said retired Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, a former superintendent of West Point, who recently outlined the war's toll on young officers in a speech to West Point alumni in North Carolina.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/11/west_point_grads_exit_service_at_high_rate/

[tblue]

1. Good for them! I saw a bumper sticker that said 'When Clinton Lied, No One Died' AT WEST POINT!

You have to be one smart cookie to go to WP. I'm not really surprised that they don't want to be involved in *'s quagmire. I just wonder what the instructors there are teaching them about unquestioningly following the Commander in Chief.

[Faux pas]

2. Smart enough to see the writing on the wall...Good for them! n/t