JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
Officials from Air Mobility Command headquarters held a briefing at the base theater here April 8 to inform Airmen about the Force Management Program for fiscal year 2010 and 2011.
The visit came as a result of the most recent changes to the Force Management Program announced in late March, which will reduce active-duty manning in the Air Force by nearly 6,000.
Currently, the Air Force has more Airmen than congressionally authorized due to some of the highest retention rates in 15 years, stated the visiting team's leader, Brig. Gen. Bradley Pray, AMC deputy director of operations, who was joined by Col. Lee Wyatt, AMC director of manpower. The FMP is designed to reduce the size and shape of the Air Force to meet current and future mission requirements, the team said.
Through the FMP, the enlisted force will be reduced by 1.6 percent, approximately 4,376, and the officer force will be reduced by two percent, approximately 1,373. The FMP will also balance Air Force career fields which are overmanned and provide more personnel to other career fields which are critically manned and stressed.
In order to achieve the reduction in force, General Pray explained the Air Force will implement voluntary and involuntary separation programs.
Some the enlisted voluntary separation programs highlighted during the team's briefing include: active-duty service commitment waivers; re-enlistment contract waivers which waives the remaining contracted service with the most recent re-enlistment to expedite separation; PALACE CHASE with a reduced commitment from a 3:1 ratio to a 1:1 ratio or transfer to the Army for the remaining Air Force active-duty commitment.
Similar to the enlisted force, the officer voluntary separation programs emphasized by the AMC team include: voluntary separation pay at two times the severance pay; PALACE CHASE reduction in commitment from a 3:1 ratio to a 1:1 ratio; transfer to the Army and active-duty service commitment waivers.
For enlisted non-voluntary separation, one program stressed was the Dates of Separation Rollback. Dates of Separation Rollback is an early release of some Airmen who have declined training, failed initial training, declined retainability for an assignment or who have negative quality indicators and have less than 14 years of service or more than 20 years of service.
Some of the officer mandatory non-voluntary separation programs highlighted by the AMC team include: limited initial skill training reclassification; a force shaping board for officers with less than six years of active service who are serving in overmanned career fields; reduction in force board where the mandatory separation dates will be no later than March 1, 2011; and selective early retirement board for lieutenant colonels and colonels. Those selected will be allowed to set a retirement date out to May 1, 2011.
To help ease separation from active duty, pre-separation classes will be offered by the Airmen and Family Readiness Center. Also, there will be a transition assistance program class, unemployment compensation for separating Airmen and transition support for deployed and remotely separated Airmen.
Additionally, involuntary separation benefits will include two years of Commissary and Base Exchange privileges, 180 days of extended medical care for self and family, an opportunity to enroll in the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill and permissive temporary duty assignment.
For more information about the FMP, visit the Air Force Personnel Center's Web site at www.afpc.randolph.af.mil or call AFPC at 800-525-0102.
(Airman 1st Class Rachel Martinez, 319th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this article)