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6 VETERANS Reporter News www.VeteransReporterNews.com January 1 %u2022 2025Buy One Get One FreeOr 50% of One Meal Good Through 01/31/2025 The American LegionParadise Post 149 Family%u201cA Riding Post with a Legion Problem%u201dWe%u2019re not your grandpa%u2019s American Legion. Care to join us?For info, call 702-606-4633 or go to www.Post149.orgThe Army Needs Hundreds of Offi cers to Leave Combat Arms%u25a0 Military.comThe Army is seeking 300 lieutenants from oversaturated combat arms fi elds to voluntarily transfer into understaffed roles.Lieutenants currently branched in armor, infantry, combat engineer and fi eld artillery can apply between Jan. 7 and Feb. 17 to transfer to adjutant general, air defense, fi nance, logistics and signal corps, the service announced in November.. Additionally, the service is also looking to fi ll in space operations, public affairs, simulations operations and information technology fi elds. %u201cMaybe they%u2019re looking for company command time but in a branch with a long wait queue, or they didn%u2019t get their initial branch of choice upon commissioning. This is a retention tool for those who want to stay and serve rather than to separate and seek opportunities elsewhere,%u201d Maj. Jesse Lansford, who analyzes personnel placement for Army Human Resources Command, said in a news release, adding that no offi cers will see forced reassignments.The move comes after Military.com reported in September that the service is aiming to slash Reserve Offi cers%u2019 Training Corps, or ROTC, scholarship funding from an annual $315 million budget to a total of $100 million through the rest of this decade %u2013 cutting the number of offi cers who can be commissioned by between 2,500 and 4,000 in that time period. The service also sought a separate batch of young offi cers to transfer out of combat arms earlier this year.The move to cut funding for the ROTC, which produces three-fourths of Army offi cers, would not affect any cadets currently enrolled but would reduce class sizes in the coming years.Service planners routinely adjust the number of troops within the ranks, which can sometimes be diffi cult to calculate years ahead of time. In recent years, the service overinvested in combat arms roles -- highly sought-after and competitive branches for cadets -- while underinvesting in support roles. Some service planners behind the scenes have also raised concerns over the growing cost of college, making what has historically been a relatively cheaper way to produce offi cers a more painful hit to the service%u2019s budget, which has been relatively fl at.With a bloat of offi cers in certain fi elds, such as combat arms, the service has effectively had to create ad hoc roles for them. Combat arms lieutenants build their careers off the framework established while platoon leaders. A shortage of platoon leader spots and then delegating those offi cers to offi ce work can kill their careers before they begin. The move also comes as the Army is reorganizing its forces and shifts away from counterterrorism operations, which dominated its mission for two decades.%u201cWe want to be postured for largescale combat operations,%u201d Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters in February. %u201cWe looked at where were there pieces of force structure that were probably more associated with counterinsurgency, for example, that we don%u2019t need anymore.%u201dTraditional ground forces will still play a central role as the service looks to posture itself in the Pacifi c to counter China%u2019s growing infl uence. Roles such as air defense that received less emphasis during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will likely need more nurturing amid a proliferation on the battlefi eld of lowcost drones and missiles, which are a generally new threat to U.S. troops, particularly from Iran. Air defense has been severely undermanned even as it has been a key part of the force%u2019s presence in Africa, Europe and more recently Israel, where an Army Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery, or THAAD, was deployed to help defend against Iranian missile attacks.U.S. Army 1st Lt. Romello Christian, an infantry platoon leader assigned to B Company 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, kneels behind cover with his platoon during a simulated assault as part of the Joint Pacifi c Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X) exercise at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, June 9, 2024. (Staff Sgt. Thomas Moeger/U.S. Army National Guard photo)