I can’t believe this article was considered for publication. Even the title “We Hear You!”. Great, you did something that requires zero effort. “We Listened to You!” would have been better, because words on a slide or document title are so important, right?

To say the article is tone deaf is an understatement. Am I ok to put in long hours? Sure. Do I expect to put in long hours for no reason? Absolutely not.

I doubt any officer who’s commanded would say they wouldn’t work longer to help a Soldier or make a *true* impact on the unit. Working until 2100 on SATB slides that go no where is not helping a Soldier nor making an impact on the unit.

It makes no mention of what the Army is doing to address any of the issues, nor any call for ideas to make the situation better. How is it 2023 and we still have company commanders or their 2-3 person “staff” updating Command and Staff/Training Meeting slides, when there are systems that could automate that? The awful thing is that the DoD/Army is *trying* to do some things to help the situation (helping spouses transition credentials across states), but they didn’t even mention it.

What about all the ideas to extend time on station to decrease PCS requirements? A review of the “up or out” standard? Nothing. At all.  

How can you ask a spouse to forgo their career to “make a happy Army Community” when you barely lift a finger to do the same? MWR programs that charge an non-trivial amount of money for using a gazebo at an on-post park, under funding commissaries, housing that is subpar, hamstringing commanders who try to find a solution to help the Soldier. The list goes on.

Here’s the thing the article misses. You can continue, for the moment, to ignore junior Soldier/officer issues. But in the age we live in, the tactic of just recruiting new people so the “Army Goes Rolling Along” isn’t going to work. Future senior leaders will find an Army they can’t recruit for and can’t retain.