Army Reserve officers wait months for resignation OK

Army Reserve officers wait months for resignation OK

azstarnet.com | May 8th 2011

RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER/ MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE Capt. Sheree Gunderson sent in her resignation papers in August. Eight months later, nothing has happened and she feels betrayed.



MINNEAPOLIS - Since turning in her resignation last August, Capt. Sheree Gunderson hasn't had much to do during weekend drills at Fort Snelling. She reads the newspaper, goes on the Internet to check her Hotmail and Facebook accounts, and occasionally attends classes unrelated to her military assignment. If there's a medical drill, she'll offer to play the role of a casualty.



For showing up, the Army pays her $550 to $600 each month.



According to her supervisors, Gunderson has done everything the Army requires in order to resign. But the Army won't let her go.



For officers, the process of leaving the armed forces is supposed to take eight weeks, according to a Pentagon memo. But for Gunderson and some other officers in the Army Reserve, processing that paperwork can take a year or two because so many supervisors have full-time civilian jobs that get in the way of their administrative duties, Army officials said.



The delay has forced Gunderson, 32, to postpone her plans for getting married and enrolling in graduate school. She wants to move on with her life.



"I have always loved the military," said Gunderson, who has served 11 years in the Army and the Reserve. "It is sad I have to leave this way. I feel betrayed."



Gunderson's supervisors are also dismayed. They said her departure stalled when her resignation paperwork was accidentally left on a desk for three or four months. It wasn't located until the Star Tribune and the Army's inspector general inquired about Gunderson's status, a colonel said.



"The whole process has been frustrating for me and the staff as well," said Maj. Mark Timm, who oversees Gunderson as commander of the 444th Minimal Care Detachment. "I feel bad for her. She was a good soldier for me when she wanted to be in the military. And once she decided to get out, I supported her position."



Some officers believe the military is making it hard for good soldiers to leave.



"People who are satisfactorily performing have a harder time getting out than people who are not satisfactorily performing," said Capt. Peter Fallgren, who supervises an officer who has spent more than a year trying to get her resignation approved. "I don't know where the system is breaking down, but I know that things should happen much quicker."



Army officials said they don't know how many officers have filed complaints about delays with the Army's inspector general. The Pentagon was unable to say how many officers are waiting for their retirement paperwork to be approved.



Unlike enlistees, who can leave as soon as their required time is up, officers must wait until their retirement paperwork is approved by multiple military officials.



"An officer in the Army does not have an end of enlistment term as does an enlisted soldier," said Lt. Col. Brent Campbell, an Army public affairs officer. "It is indefinite. The process goes through channels and can be approved and disapproved along the way."



Capt. Linda Wenker of Elk River, Minn., who joined the military in 2001 and now serves in the Army Reserve, submitted her resignation more than a year ago.



Though Wenker's documents were signed by two commanding officers, an Army spokesman said Wenker will not be eligible to retire until August, when she completes eight years of service as an officer.



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