Up or out. Certainly nothing new.
That would be all well and good except this is not the reason they are being terminated, they are being terminated, along with a sh** load of enlisted personnel because the Super Duper Pooper committee failed to reach an agreement on cutting spending so the defense budget is taking a huge hit, there fore many people will be fired and not allowed to re-up. All attributable to Bozo and his administration.
There are some portions of the active Navy Reserves that are holding boards to push out O-5s prior to year 24. They are already retirement eligible, but not a lot of people want to get out in this job market.
I had a friend that went up for that separation board, at the same time he was a base XO, at the same time he had been mobilized to Afghanistan. Nice message that sends. "We're not sure we really need you, but we need you to deploy to the armpit of the universe."
What a crock. They were within 6 years of retiring, and this is not the norm to can them so close to retirement. This is a rotten thing to do to a person who has worked so many years in the service, regardless of what rank they made, and you have no clue as to whether they were good workers or not. You presume too much. I think this stinks, bigtime. I think it also stinks when in the private sector someone is within a couple years of retirement and has the rug pulled out from under them as to their job and receiving their retirement package. You hear all of the time how someone is canned when older and right before retiring in order to cheat them out of their retirement benefits, not because of any inadequacy on their part other than having made the mistake of aging.
I worked in a Chicago law firm years ago when young, for a private investigator that had worked for years in the firm, and they terminated him for no reason other than to save a few bucks, when he was in his 50’s, and the odds of getting another job were not so good. He was Jewish, and finally another Jewish law firm in Chicago offered him a job. They took care of their own, bless them. But it destroyed him health-wise, and he died young. I didn’t like what that law firm did to him, and I don’t like what the military is doing to these guys either.
I was a member of the Clinton Reduction In Force as a major. Never saw a promotion board as promised when I became a regular officer. I was part of the peace dividend and that is when I became a big time conservative!
Fortunately I had over 22 years with my enlisted time so it did not matter. Notice it is only the liberal Democrats who do this crap. My understanding was that these guys could fulfill their career as E-5s and retire at the Major rank. Has this changed over the last decade?
Liberal Democrats tend not to honor a person’s military service except when it helps them in their desire to remain in power. Lip services only.
If that's the case, I wonder why they were allowed to stay so long. The article says many are "near" retirement. It also says that the standard rule of the DoD has been to let them stay if they were within 6 years of their retirement, unless extenuating circumstances or disciplinary action occurred. With these 157, the Air Force is deviating from that "protection" rule.
There is nothing in this brief statement that clarifies whether these are twice passed over majors or non-performers. Or what AFSC’s were involved.
More likely, somebody just drew a line and said cut these guys. In which case, they have a valid complaint on their side.
This is just the opening round. A few years ago (2007) when the Air Force was making similar drastic cuts, the Secretary of the Air Force was congratulating one of that year's Twelve Outstanding Airman at a dinner in their honor. He asked that sergeant what his plans were, and was told he was getting out. Puzzled as to why one of the Air Force's best would be getting out after this singular achievement that same SAF asked him why he would want to quit. The sergeant left him dumbfounded when he told the SAF “I'm not quitting Sir, they are RIFing me!”
A year later, that same SAF made a public statement that he had cut too much and too soon.
We'll never learn. It is the 1930’s again, and another Pearl Harbor is rising over the horizon. A lot of Americans are getting their death warrants sealed. And the very people using the scapels will be the same ones looking to blame someone else for the horrors they themselves unleashed.
“If you don’t make rank, you get fired.”
Yep, agree. Seems that Captain and Major are the two hurdles to clear before being fairly certain of making it to retirement. Most of these guys who are cut have been passed over a couple of time....
Well, ain't you just such a swell guy.
They should have either picked better duty stations....
No Air Force Officer picks his/her duty station.