The AF has to honor Sanctuary. It's spelled out in AFI 36-2131 that you cannot be involuntarily discharged once you're past 18 (with certain obvious exceptions). Recommended reading for anyone affected.

Actually, there's no paperwork "required." However, you might want to take action to avoid administrative errors (unless you trust AFPC implicitly). Once you're past your 18 years, email the Recall office at AFPC "reminding" them that you've reached Sanctuary. They'll cut an amendment to your EAD orders to extend your DOS to 20 years TAFMS. Do NOT expect to be able to serve past 20. Due to the ongoing overmanning of the AF, it's really tough for them to justify extending your Sanctuary any further than required by reg.

Yep, it would. Which may induce them to deny the extension. Not to screw you personally, but because the AFI requires them to account for extensions and duty that would put someone into Sanctuary. It would unfortunately just be the appropriate, fiscally responsible thing to do. Sorry.

If, OTOH, you're in one of the critically manned career fields, they'll likely gladly extend you that 1 year, knowing that they'll really get to keep you for 3.

 

I predict the pilot bonus is gone sooner than that.

 

One of the provisions of the Rated Recall was "no 365's".
AFPC said that recalled folks would be eligible for deployments up to 179.

Now, there are recalled aviators that are being sent on 179's, plus 3 months of CONUS TDY for training.
And now, memos have come down extending them to 270's.
Add it up, and they will be gone about 1 year straight.

Granted, they have not been given a "365", but this completely violates the intent of the rule, which was to get these people back, and not immediately throw them into being 1-year away from home.... which was a factor in their decision to come back.
Kind of like giving someone back-to-back 179's to get around not giving them a 365.

Is anyone in this situation?
Kikuchiyo: any discussions in your area on this?

 

Well the good news is that you can't get short tour credit unless you're gone a year--so at least the 270 will screw them that way too

 

I don't believe this is true anymore. If you are in a combat zone continuously for 183 days or so, you get short tour credit. I just returned Dec 17th after 183 days and was awarded short tour credit.

Lifter

 

Sorry, Huggy, but I have to disagree with you on one point. The reason the AF exempted us from iTDYs (Indeterminate TDY, the new name for 365s cause it might not end at only 365 days....) was primarily because of how members are selected for them.

AFPC/DPW (the organization formerly known as the AEF Center) uses a strict methodology for selecting members for iTDYs. Starting with the requirement and all members who are eligible, they filter out those with legal conflicts (DEROS, DOS, DAS, PCS RNTLD, etc). Then they sort the remaining eligibles based on the Number of Short Tours and latest Short Tour Return Date (STRD). They sort ties by number of AEF deployments, latest AEF return date, and then several other factors beyond my knowledge.

HAF/A1 knew that if they brought a bunch of retirees and ARC members back, we'd all go straight to the top of the iTDY list. There's guys who's last short tour was in the 1970s! They told me they knew that wasn't going to be fair to us, and coincidentally, it served as an incentive. The intent of the rule was to exempt us from a methodology that wasn't designed to account for our unusual circumstances as recallees.

Nothing limited us to deployments less than 179 days. My SOI says "I am a volunteer for TDY/Deployments; however, I am not eligible for a 365-day deployment, unless I specifically volunteer for a 365-day deployment." That was the name of the program at the time, and they're still adhering to the SOI and its intent by not selecting us for iTDYs. Training time prior to a deployment isn't part of the deployment per se, and your CEDs won't have a 365 ETL unless you volunteer for an iTDY.

For normal deployments, (not iTDYs) DPW tasks a MAJCOM, which then tasks a unit, and the unit CC picks who goes. Unless a) you're on a Joint or other very special controlled tour or b) you're on a MAJCOM staff. If b) applies to you, then DPW selects the individuals by name using the same methodology as they do for iTDYs. But, you can only go during your AEF bucket so you can't be back-to-backed. And in A1's defense, the AF changed the methodology for MAJCOM staff taskings after the recall was over and done with. (If you're on a Joint staff, you can't be deployed by the AF without approval from OSD, but you can be deployed by your Joint organization ISO their own needs and within their own rules.)

If you've been extended downrange (like the MC-12s) that sucks. A lot. There is a slim hope for the MC-12 guys that the move to Beale will improve training throughput and those extended will be released prior to the full 270. But even the latest batch that got tasked still has 179 in the ETL, not 270. Oh, and those recallees that weren't brought back on regular, full Aeronautical Orders can't go fly the MC-12 in the first place. I hadn't heard of other taskings getting extended to 270 other than the MC-12, could someone enlighten me on what others are for my SA, please?

If you're being back-to-backed by your unit, I'm sorry. That really does suck, and you have my sympathy for having a Commander who treats people like that.

 

AF has publicly announced an intent to change the Short Tour credit rules, but the implementation message and change to AFI 36-2110 have not been published.

 

Good background data. Thanks.
Although the A1 might have had their own vision/plan, it probably was not explained to the lower echelon. For example, I specifically asked AFPC:
- could they give me a 360 day TDY, and say it's less than a 365? Answer: no, we will not do that. 179's are the longest they give out.
- could the give me back-to-back 179's? Answer: no, that's not something we will do.

 

Huggy, doesn't your career field deploy enough that you shouldn't have to worry about getting no notice 179s? Or am I being naive?

 

Being an FTU IP, I don't have enough OCONUS deployment time to be "off the radar".