First Team meets re-enlistment goal

[darrels joy]

First Team meets re-enlistment goal
by Master Sgt. Dave Larsen
BAGHDAD (Army News Service July 8, 2004) --

With still three months remaining in the fiscal year the 1st Cavalry Division has exceeded its retention goal.

As of the end of June its overall retention percentage is at 124 percent of goal.

With long deployments, involuntary extensions and the inability to move freely from assignment to assignment the division re-enlisted more than 700 Soldiers over the past three months. More than a third opted to stay with the 1st Cavalry Division.

?That?s a tremendous amount of Soldiers re-enlisting for stabilization,? said Sgt. Maj. Merle Henry, the division?s command career counselor. ?It says a lot about Cav traditions.?

The division?s high overall retention percentage is a little misleading, Henry said, the division?s high overall retention
percentage is a little misleading, since retention received credit for Soldiers voluntarily extended to support Operation Iraqi Freedom II .

Retention was credited with Soldiers who signed voluntary extensions once they were Stop-Lossed.