Army recruits blues to green
- By Susan M. Menke
- Aug 13, 2004
The Defense Department last month approved the Army's plan to recruit hard-to-find IT experts and intelligence and imagery analysts, among other personnel, from the ranks of its fellow military services.
Navy and Air Force personnel can join Operation Blue to Green at once if released from active duty; Marines and Coast Guard personnel must complete their current service obligations before joining the Army.
'It's a fluid situation' as far as the IT jobs go, said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty. 'We'll take volunteers, but obviously we can't take 100,000 volunteers' from the other services.
The program seeks to rebalance the relative service sizes. The Army is short of personnel, whereas the Navy and Air Force are trying to cut their force sizes.
'About 120 Air Force specialty codes will transfer into 37 Army military occupational specialties, and 112 Navy ratings will transfer into 42 Army MOSes,' Army Col. Norvel Dillard said in a statement.
The main attraction of the program is faster promotion in the Army. More information appears at
www.goarmy.com.