 This is the Army Today. Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler spent some time with leaders at Fort Eustis, Virginia to explain the reasoning behind many of the changes coming to the U.S. Army. A particular issue he addressed was the drawdown of over 80,000 soldiers and what that means to the overall force. It means we're going to retain the best and brightest. For our enlisted population, that means we're going to have a couple of boards that actually start this year a little bit different than what we've done in the past. If you have staff sergeants and above and specific M.O.S.s in your formation, we're going to look at their records and determine whether or not they're going to be able to stay in the service. Soldiers in stagnant M.O.S.s may find themselves asked to reclass or even retire. Fully qualified soldiers may find themselves barred from re-enlistment as well. Sergeant Major Chandler explained what it is going to take for soldiers to succeed and what their leaders must do to help them understand these new, higher standards. Who's among the best is really going to be about what you do to separate yourself from your peers. The other things you do beside your M.O.S. So I'd ask you, within your soldiers, within your formation and as you develop your junior leaders, those young lieutenants have got to understand what this means because the environment or the warrant officers that they're going to walk into, when they leave Bolik and go to their first unit of assignment, is going to be profoundly different than it was last year. Meanwhile, in an effort to enhance readiness for deploying units, the Army announced it will expand its enlisted involuntary early separation program. Under this program, enlisted soldiers who elect not to re-enlist or extend in order to deploy with their unit could be separated earlier than their ETS date. To learn more about this program and who it will affect, visit the RNews page at army.mil. And that's the Army Today.