Fair enough. But the Army, the service that has struggled most with retention, is already on top of things
So while improved GI benefits may hurt retention, it’s important to remember that they do wonders to boost recruitment. I pinged an Army buddy for his reaction to the whole benefits/retention issue, and his response was classic soldier: “If the Army wants to boost retention, they can start by unf**king themselves!” Taking the above story into account, I’d say that the Army has done just that. As for Senator McCain, there’s nothing stopping Congress from having their cake and eating it too. They can do the right thing by knocking veterans’ benefits up to a level commensurate with the 21st century, while also kicking the services a little extra cash for retention benefits. It’s the least we can do after tasking our military members with 7 long years of fighting. Of course neither story addresses the most critical issue in the quest to improve retention: proper force size. When we have enough troops to end the year-on, year-off deployment cycle, retention issues will slowly fade away.
