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Air Force plans narrow cuts in 2008



Force shaping will occur mostly through retirements, separations
By Bruce Rolfsen - [email protected]
Posted : Wednesday Aug 22, 2007 13:13:49 EDT

The Air Force intends to shed about 5,600 active-duty positions in 2008 and bring the service down to 328,600 airmen. But the narrow reductions for 2008 will require the Air Force to spin up a wide-ranging program of cuts in 2009 if a service strength of 316,000 airmen remains the target.
For 2008, the Air Force will have no enlisted force reduction programs, said Col. Chuck Armentrout, chief of the Military Force Policy Division at the Air Staff. Instead, the service will shed about 4,760 enlisted positions through normal retirements and separations.
If not enough enlisted airmen leave during 2008, the service could initiate some waiver programs.
“We may open up those plans if we have to,” Armentrout said. “Those things are easy to turn on.”
Among officers, cuts will be limited.
The goal is to reduce the officer corps by 827 positions. Most of those positions will be lost through normal retirements and separations, Armentrout said.
The service will offer officers who have 12 to 15 years of service a voluntary separation bonus worth about three times their base annual pay. Only 200 officers will be eligible for the bonus, and they must be leaving career fields that have too many people in their year group.
The coming year’s program boosted the separation bonus from the twice the annual pay offered to volunteers in 2007 because the 2008 program involves officers who have served longer and will need more enticements to leave, Armentrout said.
A limited number of active-duty service commitment and time-in-grade waivers will also be available, Armentrout said. And prior-enlisted officers will be able to retire at 20 years or more once they reach eight years of commissioned service.
Lieutenants will again face a force-shaping board. The service aims to cut 130 lieutenants who were commissioned in 2005. They too, will come from career fields that are overmanned.
To help reach the 2008 goals, the Air Force is limiting the recruitment of new airmen to 4,417 officers and 27,800 enlisted airmen.
The officer and enlisted accessions are in line with the service’s projections for 2007, but less than 2006, when the Air Force welcomed 30,700 enlisted recruits, and more than 2005, when the service took in only 19,169 enlisted airmen
“One thing we’ve tried not do this round is reduce accessions to meet end-strength goals,” Armentrout said. “We’ve probably done that a little too much to our determent. We’ll continue to access at a level that will sustain us for 30 years.”
The new voluntary separation pay plans call for the leaving officers to get a lump-sum payment equal to about three years of their current base pay. Base pay does not include housing, food and clothing allowances or bonuses.
The departing officer will not be eligible for retirement benefits, Armentrout said. The officer will also have to serve in the individual ready reserve for three years, meaning he could be called back to duty as reservist.
To qualify, an officer must leave the service before he reaches his 15th year of service but after he has completed his 12th year in uniform. Prior-enlisted officers will count their enlisted and commissioned time.
The officer also must come from career field that is overmanned or not specifically exempted by the Air Force.
Officers can apply for the separation bonus starting on Sept. 5 at their unit’s military personnel flight, Armentrout said. The request can not be done online.
Qualified applicants will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis. And once a career field is no longer overmanned, no other applicants from that career field will be eligible. The officers will have to leave the service by the end of next June.
The force reduction board for lieutenants will follow the same rules as the boards on 2006 and 2007. Junior officers in career fields that are overstaffed will be able to voluntarily separate until their career field’s manning level is no longer more than 100 percent.
If enough lieutenants don’t leave on their own, a reduction in force board must decide which lieutenants leave. The departing lieutenants will not be eligible for separation benefits beyond job counseling.
Lieutenants interested in volunteering should contact their personnel flight.
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For more on the Air Force’s 2008 and 2009 force shaping plans, see the Sept. 3 issue of Air Force Times, on newsstands Monday.