Posted on 07/15/2007 10:21:05 AM PDT by El Gato
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/07/airforce_rif_update_070713/
They are cutting by 40,000 to 316,000 by end of FY 2009. This particular officer RIF only 306 officers. The balance of the 3,041 officer reductions were obtained by voluntary separations.
And its not just the Air Force being cut. The Navy is also being cut. The Army and Marines are being enlarged, but not as much as the combined cuts from the other two services. Even the Army is cutting its civil service support staff. The command I support is cutting 5% this FY and 5% next FY. They are cutting their support service contracts by about twice that much each of those years. While that might make sense in the short run, it's gonna hurt in the long run.
This happens every time Democraps assume power - gut the military and give the money to social programs.
It also happens when country-club republicans are elected
It also happens when country-club republicans are elected
I cannot argue with that.
And yet we are asking (commanding) Reservists to serve in active duty as many as 5 times so far in Iraq and Afghanistan...
If we are going to be fighting wars around the world, we have to have the ACTIVE duty personnel to do it right. My personal opinion is that we rely to heavily on reserves and National Guard to fight full-time warfare.
Have we not learned the lessons from our own history? I’m all for having an efficient military. But these cuts appear to go beyond that - completely cutting officers out of service instead of moving them to other jobs/positions. Remember, many of these are people who have chosen the military as a career. Are they really the ones we want to get rid of?
Will this be yet another part of GW’s legacy? An even further reduced military while spreading our fighting men and women even thinner...????
When the USAF has to choose between personnel and planes, you know what they're going to choose every time.
You would have to see the specialties of these people being RIF’d to know if they are legit. Better to get more facts of the specialties involved because of those RIF’d may be in specialties no longer needed by the AF.
I doubt the RIF will hurt in the long run. Every organization should continually examine its manpower needs from more than just a numbers standpoint. What the Air Force—and every other organization—needs are the right numbers of people with the right knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies. Technology has all but done away with certain career fields as has outsourcing, in the case of the Air Force, jobs which do not require military personnel. Keeping people with outdated knowledge, unnecessary skills, the wrong abilities, and competencies which the Air Force no longer needs would be a mistake of the first order.
BTW, Army Times is not the most reliable publication around and has nothing to do with the Pentagon. In fact, it is a very biased newspaper from what has been printed in the past.
I am on distribution for AF News and haven’t seen anything about this yet.
Who is running the joint?
This did have to do with AFSC’s that are no longer needed in the force structure. Some will retrain and others will take the opportunity to leave the AF which has happened int he past. Some of their positions are positions that can be filled by civilians BTW — more likely contractors if the past is any indication. Found this on the USAF site.
Letter to Airmen
Honorable Michael W. Wynne
Secretary of the Air Force
Friday, June 15, 2007
Force Reduction Update
Probably the most difficult part of my job as your Secretary is releasing patriotic Americans from serving in our Air Force, but it is a step we nevertheless must take. One of the duties we have as Airmen is assuring future Airmen that they will be as capable and confident to accomplish the mission as we are today. We are faced with the need to ensure ongoing GWOT operations and personnel readiness across the spectrum of conflict around the world; versus the age, health, capacity and capability of our current air and space inventories as we move into an uncertain world future.
Faced with these competing demands, our options are to either let our unmatched capabilities wither or cut our manning to invest in tomorrow’s warfighting capabilities. We must accept the latter - as painful as it is - if we are to remain the world’s premier air, space and cyberspace force.
I know this means more of our fine Airmen will be departing our service early, and I am not happy about it. But ultimately our duty is to answer our Nation’s call, and to fund our readiness requirements means we must also reduce personnel.
The 40,000 Active, Guard, Reserve, and Civilian Full-time Equivalent cuts highlighted in the Fiscal Year (FY) 07 President’s Budget freed critical resources. We are using these funds to begin recapitalizing and modernizing our air, space and cyberspace systems to fight the GWOT, and give our future Airmen the tools to dominate all levels of warfare and across the spectrum of conflict.
We cannot continue to merely “get by” with old equipment. Our aging airplanes are increasingly expensive to operate and maintain, and many are on flight restrictions. Meanwhile, our enemies and potential challengers continually upgrade their air defenses, strike and space capabilities, and cyber attack systems.
We are continuing to pare back our force structure from the 349,000 Airmen on Active Duty at the end of FY 06, to a smaller, leaner and more capable force by FY 13. There are no plans to extend our restructuring beyond the current 40,000 reduction; in fact our drawdown is subject to change as we reap the benefits of productivity-enhancing initiatives and as we evaluate Army and Marine Corps end-strength increases. Land component growth may require our Total Force drawdown to level off, while the size of specific elements within our Air Force might actually need to grow as well.
We’re also continuing Force Shaping initiatives that move the right number of Airmen into the right jobs to relieve stress in critically manned AFSCs. Rest assured, we are doing all we can to ensure the Air Force is properly shaped to optimize our contributions to the joint fight, and to ensure our Airmen are equipped to dominate air, space and cyberspace. Thank you for your service, commitment, and dedication to our Air Force and Nation during these challenging times.
http://www.af.mil/library/viewpoints/secaf.asp?id=331
This is absurd. We should be increasing our military spending even more since this is during wartime. Our share of GDP that goes to military is only 3%. We can hike it up another measly 1% or so.
Maybe they can use this RIF to reduce in force some remaining Clintonistas. That would strengthen our military. I looked at the designations of some bases in last base closings cycle, and in some states they had most or all of the bases listed as “Accounting support”.
Who's they?
Stupid Stupid Stupid
It’s the defense of the country, stupid....
The Army is hiring....
Yep...I didn’t mention the Blue to Green program...they’re going to go after blue suiters with around 10 years of service....force retraining...or quit halfway ‘til retirement...become a SP or go Blue to Green...
The Administration shares some of the blame. The idea behind it is by saving on personnel, more money will be available to buy new equipment. Dumb, but that's the way politicians think.
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