Free Republic

Air Force Layoffs Include Academy Grads (Colorado Springs, CO) - The Air Force plans to lay off more than 17 - hundred lieutenants in the next year, including hundreds of recent Air Force Academy graduates. The cuts will be made in postitions such as security specialists and maintenence experts, but not pilots, satelilite specialists, or navigators. The Air Force hopes to cut four-thousand of it's more than 73 - thousand officers. Air Force spokleswoman Major Jennifer Stephens says the layoffs were triggered by an increase in the number of people staying in the service for full careers. Stephens says the...

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- More than 2,000 former U.S. Army soldiers are resisting returning to active service in the Individual Ready Reserve program, the New York Times said Tuesday. In all, there are about 110,000 members of the IRR, of which more than 4,000 have been summoned back for service in Iraq or Afghanistan. More than 1,800 of them have so far requested exemptions or delays. Of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 did not show up. So far, only 3 percent of requests for exemptions have been turned...