WASHINGTON  – The Army’s ability to train its forces is “increasingly at risk” because of the nation’s protracted commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the general in charge of training has told the Army’s chief of staff.

In a Feb. 16 memo to Gen. George W. Casey, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, said that the Army:

• Has lost thousands of uniformed trainers because of troop demands in Iraq and Afghanistan

• Has had to put junior officers in charge of some key training functions

• Has delayed initial instruction for nearly 500 helicopter pilots because it doesn’t have enough trainers.

Only 30 percent of the instructors at Army training schools are in the military, Dempsey said, making the Army increasingly dependent on outside contractors.

“We are behind in integrating lessons learned, developing training and updating doctrine,” Dempsey wrote in the memo. “We are undermanned in our efforts to design the future Army.”

Dempsey’s warning comes as the Obama administration presses ahead with plans to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 and has committed a growing number of military trainers to doubling the size of the Afghan security forces.

Casey said that the military doesn’t have enough soldiers to commit more troops to training and that relief will come from two developments: the continued U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the planned expansion of the Army by 65,000 soldiers by the end of 2011.

Titled “Erosion of TRADOC’s Core Competencies and Functions,” the memo contains a litany of how keeping a large troop presence in two war zones while committing to train foreign troops has hurt the military’s training efforts.

There are 96,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 78,000 in Afghanistan.

Dempsey wrote that since September 2001, the number of soldiers assigned to training and other planning responsibilities has declined by 7,300.

To fill the gap, Dempsey said, his command has hired 9,000 outside contractors.

He complains that the result is a “de-greening” of training, meaning less reliance on Army personnel.

For example, he wrote, outside contractors are teaching 68 percent of the courses at the Army’s Intelligence School.

Dempsey also said the manpower shortage has affected ROTC training programs, particularly at universities that provide large numbers of junior officers to the Army.

He said that the officer-to-student ratios at five of the nation’s six largest ROTC programs, including The Citadel in South Carolina and Texas A&M University, now exceed 1-to-45 and that in some cases the ratio is 1-to-76.

A shortage of captains and majors with combat experience is particularly troubling, he says.

“Their experience level is of extreme importance to our command because it gives them the field-tested knowledge and credibility to teach, coach and mentor the officers following behind them,” Dempsey wrote.

Barack Obama supporters in Precinct 121 raised their hands to vote for the then-presidential candidate during a February 2007 caucus held at Colorado College’s Slocum Hall. Photo by The Gazette file

Kirk Speer