House and Senate authorizers have approved several force-shaping measures requested by the Defense Department that would enable more voluntary retirements as the department prepares for a military personnel drawdown. The fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill, approved by Congress and awaiting the president's signature, lets DOD increase the percentage of officers able to retire in-grade without meeting the requisite number of years. The bill also lets DOD decrease the number of years of commissioned-officer service needed pre-retirement. The Pentagon had...
