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Air Force officials announce voluntary separation, retirement extensions
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Voluntary separation, retirement programs extended

Posted 12/21/2010 Email story   Print story

    

12/21/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Air Force officials have announced an extension of voluntary separation and retirement programs for fiscal 2011 as part of the service's ongoing force-management initiatives.

Voluntary and involuntary force-management programs were implemented in fiscal 2010 due to record-high retention. For fiscal 2011, the service remains over its congressionally mandated end-strength.

"We have extraordinarily talented Airmen answering our nation's call worldwide," said Brig. Gen. Sharon K.G. Dunbar, the force management policy director at Headquarters Air Force. "With so many Airmen wanting to serve, we now have nearly 2,000 more Airmen serving than authorized and funded by Congress."

Based on end-strength limits, additional force-management measures are necessary to reduce the number of Airmen serving on active duty, officials said.

Officer voluntary measures include waiving time in grade and active-duty service commitments in targeted year groups; waiving all but two years of commissioning commitments for Air Force Academy and ROTC graduates, to include waiving recoupment of education and scholarship costs; and reducing the Reserve obligation for Palace Chase transfers from a three-year commitment ratio to one year for each remaining year of ADSC, officials said.

Enlisted voluntary measures will focus on Airmen in non-critical, overage specialties and year groups. These include waiving time-in-grade, limited ADSCs and up to two years of enlistment obligations. Palace Chase transfers are also available for enlisted Airmen with a one-to-one rather than a two-to-one year commitment.

Eligible Airmen can begin applying immediately for any of these voluntary programs.

General Dunbar said the challenge is balancing both the number and skills of Airmen within authorized, funded levels.

"Keeping the active-duty force within authorized end-strength levels will cause our active force to lose many great Airmen," she said. "However, our Air Force offers many ways to serve. We hope these Airmen will remain with us through civil service and reserve-component opportunities."

Airman and family readiness centers will continue providing transition support through transition assistance planning and veterans' benefits seminars.

These seminars will include information on opportunities available in the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, Air Force civil service and the private sector, as well as educational options available with the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

Senior Air Force leaders highly encourage Airmen to consider opportunities along the Air Force continuum of service of Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and civil service at www.usajobs.gov.

"Our Airmen are a trained and ready resource with the skills our Guard, Reserve and civil service need," General Dunbar said. "We definitely want to keep top talent in the Air Force family."



tabComments
12/23/2010 6:44:33 PM ET
PB depending on the implementation of Ask and Tell All, I very well may separate even though I am within a couple years of retirement. Integrity First -- and I cannot compromise my morals or ethics. I'm waiting to see the indoctrination and mandated speech restrictions. I'm not in a targeted group so this might get interesting.
D, FL
 
12/22/2010 3:41:20 PM ET
This is perfect for all those folks who said they want out now that the DADT repeal is law.
PB, US
 
12/22/2010 2:03:21 PM ET
And in a couple of years everyone else will be under stop loss. The last several times we did this we did not try to balance the right skills with authorization and I'm sure it will be the same this year. It was simply a numbers game based on career fields so if you were substandard in a critical career field you are still lucky to be serving while exceptional performers in overmanned fields were separated.R at Ellsworth I would get with your MPF or VA office to get a definite answer. You might get a lot of different rumored answers here. It depends on your length of service and if you don't meet the TIS depends on your what your separation code will be.
SW, OK
 
12/22/2010 12:31:55 PM ET
@ Retired but Working There are also quite a few ROAD members that need their commanders shirts to suggest this program. Not to defend an underachieving civilian, but there's dead weight on both sides of this see-saw.
Retired Also, NE
 
12/22/2010 12:26:06 PM ET
Nice comment...our Air Force offers many ways to serve. We hope these Airmen will remain with us through civil service and reserve-component opportunities. If people want to serve the USAF as civil servants THEY WOULD NOT HAVE ENLISTED I fully support the civilians who work for the Air Force and the other services but there's something about serving in uniform that sets us apart. What gets me about the whole above authorized end strength bit is that there are 2000 more Airmen than we're allowed to have yet there are contractor guards at our gates. I know the cops are heavily deployed but having too many Airmen yet having to contract out military duties is wrong. An Airman must be less expensive to the budget than a contractor and the Airman serves a higher duty than a contract guard who's there for a paycheck.
DMPI, Al JBAB DC
 
12/22/2010 12:08:04 PM ET
They should strongly consider putting in a independent auditor to assess and weed out the retired on duty people within the government, civilians that are sleeping fat dumb and happy who are protected while putting out as little as possible. I must say there are also many very valuable and highly educated or skilled Government civilians who work hard as a civil servant, but there are at least 10-15 percent who deserve to be let go and replaced by the military people that the Government does not really want to let go. Someone needs to step up and weed out the losers from the productive workers now regardless of Union inputs. You know who they are.
Retired but Working, USA
 
12/21/2010 7:54:32 PM ET
So with this program is the individual still eligible for GI Bill benefits
R, Ellsworth
 
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