The Military

By BRUCE VAN VOORST WASHINGTON

On the first night of the gulf-war ground assault, Army artillery Captain Jeffrey Davis helped pour hundreds of rounds of high explosives into Iraqi positions. A month later, he was feted in a triumphal Stateside victory parade. Last week Captain Davis, 29, a seven-year veteran from Wyalusing, Pa., was facing unemployment, squeezed from the Army by declining defense budgets. "I served well," said Davis, who had dreamed of a military career. "Now I hope I can compete in the real world."

Captain Davis isn't alone. Now that the cold war is over, more than half a million soldiers -- roughly the same number that fought in Desert Storm -- will see their jobs eliminated over five years. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that these cuts will save $103 billion in defense spending. "General Motors is eliminating 74,000 employees over three years," says General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We're doing that many alone from January to September of this year."

Because the U.S. has had an all-volunteer force since 1974, managing this drawdown is far more complicated than the demobilizations that followed World War II or Vietnam. "You don't just have a bunch of draftees who are eager to return to a world they know," says Major Bill Crews, an Army job-placement consultant. "In many cases, these career-military persons have never had another job."

Although the force reduction actually began in 1990, most of the earlier downsizing was accomplished through attrition and reduced recruiting. Now the dread phrase "involuntary separation" is in vogue, and pink slips are about to go out by the thousands. Air Force Sergeant Cindy Gunter, 33, of Pope A.F.B., Fayetteville, N.C., is leaving halfway through a career she hoped would span 20 years. "I'm being thrown out, that's the way I look at it," she says. "They're making me go. I don't have a choice."

In fact, many servicemen and -women do have a choice: between volunteering to leave in exchange for a "copper handshake" severance package and waiting to be sacked and getting less attractive benefits. A staff sergeant with 10 years service, for instance, can choose to leave with a $28,100 lump-sum payment or a $4,700 annual annuity over 20 years. But if the same sergeant does not volunteer, he or she can be separated with one-third less pay. "It's a terrible decision to have to make," says Staff Sergeant Stephen Underwood, a gulf-war veteran who has decided to leave after 11 years in the Air Force. "I'd fight it if I could. But it's too much of a gamble to stay." Even among those whose jobs are secure for now, there is bitterness over what they call a "breach of faith." Says Air Force Major John Shafer, a C-130 pilot: "Many personnel have lost trust in the government."

The cutbacks, concentrated mainly in the Army and Air Force, affect various ranks and job categories differently. Many junior people are simply not being allowed to re-enlist. Officers, a great number of whom expected to serve for 30 years, are being ousted by Selective Early Retirement Boards. Hardest hit are people in the mid-ranks -- sergeants, captains and majors -- especially those in overstaffed military specialties, such as logistics and combat support. "These men and women have committed themselves to a career in the service," says Martin Binkin, a military sociologist at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "It's a lot tougher for them to make the adjustment."

Nor does the nationwide recession make job hunting any easier. In order to smooth the transition, the Pentagon is offering seminars to teach outgoing military personnel how to write resumes and handle job interviews. The good news is that many will leave with marketable skills: virtually everyone in the military goes to school almost constantly to keep abreast of today's complex weaponry. A lot of veterans will continue their education by going to college or graduate school with the help of the military's generous financial-aid programs. Unfortunately, not all military skills are readily transferable. Says a departing Desert Storm veteran: "Driving a tank in combat isn't exactly the greatest preparation for civilian life."

One question raised by the force reduction is how it will affect blacks, who make up 12% of the U.S. population but 29% of the Army population. The pink slips are technically color blind. In practice, however, the targeted job categories and ranks tend to be those with the highest concentrations of black and minority personnel.

Not only are large numbers of blacks being discharged, but those who are seeking to enter the military for the first time will find the traditional door to social mobility partly closed by reduced recruitment and tougher entrance standards. Since 1990, the proportion of black Army recruits has dropped from 25.2% to 20.3%. "The drawdown will drastically reduce black opportunities in American society," says Northwestern University military sociologist Charles Moskos. "Almost three-quarters of the black males who want to join will not be able to meet the new entrance requirements."

The worst may be yet to come. Some congressional leaders are talking of additional military budget cuts of up to $150 billion over five years, which would make even deeper personnel cuts unavoidable. There's a widespread conviction on Capitol Hill that the military services remain hugely overstaffed. "Does every service need a legal corps, a medical corps, a dental corps, a chaplain corps?" asked Senator Sam Nunn last week. Even + Defense Secretary Dick Cheney recognizes that paring down is necessary in the current budget climate. But like his boss, he takes a stand: "This far and no more."