Air Force to cut 2,300 officers

[IowaRNBSN]

air force to cut 2,300 officers from its rolls

bygeoff ziezulewiczstars and stripes

published: february 3, 2011

raf mildenhall, england-some air force officers could see themselves involuntarily out of a job by this fall under a new force management program announced wednesday.

despite the service implementing a multi-year program in 2010 to reduce the ranks, the air force still ended the fiscal year with approximately 2,300 officers more than it needed, according to an air force news release.

enlisted goals have been met, and this next round of separations will affect commissioned officers, the release states.

air force retention is at its highest level in 16 years.

the air force said in march 2010 that it was looking to get rid of 5,750 people by fiscal 2012. last march, the service had more than 335,000 airmen, well above its fiscal 2010 authorized end-strength of 331,700.

"retention projections for fiscal years 2011 and 2012 continue to be high," gen. norton a. schwartz, the air force chief of staff, said in the release. "without additional measures, we could grow to 7,000 over our authorized end strength by the end of fiscal year 2012." in addition to those projections, the "need to operate within our means" was another factor in the decision, he said. as part of the plan to reduce the force, the service will introduce force-shaping boards for junior officers beginning this may.

the board will consider the 2006 to 2008 commissioned year groups in the judge advocate general, biomedical science corps and medical service corps categories. officers not selected by the board for retention will have to separate by oct. 1, according to the release.

a reduction-in-force board will begin in september for mid-grade officers, but eligible officers can apply for voluntary separation in march that would have them leave the force by oct. 1. this board will consider officers commissioned from 1999 to 2005 in the line-of-the-air force, chaplain, jag, biomedical science and medical service categories. those not selected for retention will separate by feb. 1, 2012.

"this is a difficult time," schwartz said in a wednesday e-mail to airmen. "the results of last year's reductions are no doubt affecting units and lives across our air force family. "with a very talented, all-volunteer force answering our nation's call in a variety of global commitments, it is not easy to select airmen for early transition from the active duty force."

in the end, the boards will retain the top 90 percent of officers within the affected categories in the eligible year groups, according to the air force. early-retirement boards for lieutenant colonels that have been twice deferred for colonel and for colonels with four or more years in grade who have not met a selective early retirement board in the last five years will occur in october and january 2012. "air force leaders announced last year that promotion opportunities would be reduced to 95 percent to captain and 90 percent to major," brig. gen. sharon dunbar, force management policy director, said in wednesday's release. dunbar said in the release that almost every airman leaving the force as a result of this latest reduction is eligible to serve in the air force reserve or air national guard.

the latest downsizing efforts are less severe than the force-shaping program announced in 2002, in which the service planned to cut 40,000 airmen to pay for expensive aircraft. defense secretary robert gates put a halt to those personnel cuts in summer 2008 and authorized the service to grow to 330,000.

for more information on force management programs, log on to the air force personnel center at www.afpc.randolph.af.mil.

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[IowaRNBSN]

Nurses are part of the medical service corps I believe.

[w2cross2blue]

IowaRNBSN, my recruiter sent me this information as well. But tried to assure me that it would not affect the medical side as much as the line side. He told me that he expected to have more concrete information regarding new accessions by March. He also told me that at this point anyone who is selected from the next boards will also be made "alternates" and have to await an open position. He did tell me there are 4 HSPS scholarships left for nurse practitioner programs for this year.

[wtbcrna, MSN, DNP, CRNA]

I haven't heard of any cuts for the nurse corps in the AF.

[midinphx, BSN]

The medical service corp is really the admin side of things. And I think those that are on the cutting block already know. I have a JAG friend who says 3 jags in his office are on notice. They have submit a packet about why the AF should keep them.

[The Little Greek]

MSC is different from the NC and like wtbcrna, I have not heard of any NC cuts.

[Yammar]

i know on the nursing side they have all but stopped bringing any new nurses, but are they also cutting back on JAGS and MSC? There were oodles of JAGS in the last COT.

I understood the reductions were impacting those that "failed to thrive" in their position. It would seem to make sense as the AF could keep the best of the best and trim a bit of the dead weight.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I wanted to be a JAG once. Hard to get into. Hard to stay in apparently, lol.

[CRF250Xpert]

Nurses are part of the medical service corps I believe.

Nurse Corps....MSC's are bean counters. They give you 15 mins to treat a pt with 6 Dz, renew 12 meds, do 9 referrals, and fill out 6 useless forms....great people.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

Nurse Corps....MSC's are bean counters. They give you 15 mins to treat a pt with 6 Dz, renew 12 meds, do 9 referrals, and fill out 6 useless forms....great people.

Those are the people that keep healthcare running, lol.

[caliotter3]

RIFs are nothing new. All officers at some time or another worry about getting the boot before their time.

[The Little Greek]

Personally, I'm more worried about them cutting the NC loan repayment and ISP retention bonuses. I'll be taking what I can get before they drop those programs.