As part of the Army’s over 20% drawdown, the overwhelmingly largest in numbers and proportion to any service, officer boards were held to identify Captains and Majors who were no longer required on active duty.

Stars and Stripes reports 1100 Captains were identified and notified that there services are no longer needed.  This sort of news is typically delivered on a Tuesday (Mondays are bad enough) by a full Colonel or higher.  87 of these no longer needed officers were deployed, 48 of them to the Afghanistan combat theatre.

They have approximately nine months to transition to civilian employment, somewhat difficult to do while deployed overseas.  Supposedly, those overseas are to be returned to a stateside appointment “as quickly as possible”.

500 Majors are slated for the same treatment later this month or in early August.

The Senate is considering legislation to deny funding for notification of those deployed to Afghanistan in the future.  No future officer cuts are scheduled.