Quality of Career Non-Commissioned Officers
Gao ID: FPCD-81-33 December 31, 1980Concern was expressed about the loss of large numbers of quality noncommissioned officers (NCO's) from the services. Beyond the loss of too many skilled NCO's, the concerns centered on whether those NCO's staying in the services are of the same quality level as those who are leaving. GAO made a trend analysis which examined three quality indicators: (1) mental category; (2) educational level; and (3) pay grade.
GAO found that among those NCO's the services desire to retain: (1) the services tend to be losing those who have higher mental aptitudes than those reenlisting; (2) there is little difference in the educational levels of those staying and those leaving; and (3) those staying have average pay grades slightly higher than those leaving.