Army Finds Silver Lining In Tough Budget Blueprint

"As important as the 490[,000] number was the fact that we were able to do this over a six-year period," said Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army Chief of Staff, at a Pentagon press conference. "[Army] Secretary McHugh and I are committed to ensuring we walk down this hill at the ready rather than running our nation's Army off a cliff.

" Specifically, while the troop cuts will start in 2012, they don't have to be complete until 2017. Slow and steady, in this case, makes for better personnel management. The steep cuts of the 1990s required buy-outs and other expensive expedients, which often backfired by paying talented troops to leave. This time, said Odierno, "We hope to do it mostly by attrition." So as servicemembers finish out their current enlistment contracts, the Army simply needs to try a little less hard to sign them back up again. That should allow the service to be more selective about who gets offered reenlistment bonuses. (The reductions won't be spread out perfectly evenly, however: The Army took in larger numbers of troops in the years it was growing, and their contracts will likewise expire in large "cohorts" concentrated in a few years).

The second silver lining is that the cuts, all things considered, aren't that dramatic. "We had some problems in the [1990s] when we came down a significant number, almost over 300,000 in the Army," said Odierno. Specifically, from 1987 to 1999, the active-duty Army dropped from 780,000 personnel to 480,000 – a 38 percent reduction. The current plan drops the Army from 570,000 to 490,000 – 14 percent.

Third, certain key cadres will be cut even less.