The US Navy announced Thursday it will temporarily suspend its so-called “up-or-out” policy of discharging veteran service members who haven’t performed well enough to get promoted in order to improve its retention efforts and fleet readiness.
With recruiters struggling to fill open slots, the Navy announced a two-year suspension of enlisted high-year tenure, describing its move as means to keep more of its talented and experienced sailors in the Navy, broadening their career progression opportunities and allowing them the opportunity to advance to the next higher paygrade.
Instead of pushing out service members who failed to get promoted, the pilot program – according to the statement by the chief of naval operations in Washington – will allow more veteran service members to remain with the Navy to reduce its number of “gaps-at-sea,” – meaning unfilled jobs on deployed vessels – and qualify for retirement benefits.
Amid recruiting struggles by all branches of the US military, the Navy reportedly has about 9,000 gaps-at-sea.
The two-year program will affect about 1,600 service members which otherwise would’ve been forced to leave active duty and transfer to the Naval Reserve for failing to advance to a high enough rank within a certain time period, called “high-year tenure.”
After previously relaxing its rules to allow senior enlisted advisers – known as command master chiefs – to serve as long as 36 years, the branch’s new retention program marks its latest step this year to address its staffing shortfall.
Noting the challenging recruiting environment, Rear Admiral James Waters said in a statement that the Navy is focused on ensuring that every active-component sailor who wants to remain on active duty has that opportunity.
Additionally, the Navy is offering the new recruits enlistment bonuses and loan repayments totaling as much as $115,000 and has also raised its maximum enlistment age from 39 to 41 and tweaked its hiring standards which allowed more recruits who previously barely passed their entrance exams.
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