Force Shapping... how about getting back in?

[BengalsFan]

With all this Force Shapping and such, I was wondering if there was still a path back onto Active Duty for pilots? Anyone with info let me know.

 

[Deuce130]

There are a bunch of guys in AFSOC who left AD, got furloughed and then came back in. I would go straight to the source and contact the Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio to get the straight story.

 

[CCDiscoB]

Things are getting tight. The AF is overmanned in pilots (field grade) because many furloughees have returned. The AF is starting do something about this, we have a furloughee that was told if he gets passed over to Lt. Col, a second time, he will be discharged! In other words, he could be looking for a job this fall.

 

[JimNtexas]

Things are getting tight. The AF is overmanned in pilots (field grade) because many furloughees have returned. The AF is starting do something about this, we have a furloughee that was told if he gets passed over to Lt. Col, a second time, he will be discharged! In other words, he could be looking for a job this fall.

So they'd discharge a Major with less than 20 years?

 

[galaxy5]

There are no plans (currently) for a RIF (reduction in force, this term would apply to forcing folks out before 20 years). There will be Selective Early Retirements, but early doesn't mean before 20. This is when they will make folks, who are past 20 years, retire before they planned too. With the civilian industry the way it is you can imagine there are a bunch of folks on active duty in this situation. From what I understand most of these folks will be allowed to continue until their primary (in the zone) look at Colonel.

The last I heard there would be a net loss of about 14000 officers in '07. Mostly from non-rated (pilot, nav, abm) career fields. At the same time there are some rated career fields that are still hurting for pilots, Recce for example. So if you're a former JSTARS or AWACS bubba there may be a way back on active duty. For the most part though that door has been closed.

Good luck.

 

[BengalsFan]

Well I am not previous Recce, but I am actually really intereted in that fielf because my wife is from OKC. '
Galaxy5, you seem smart on this... do you think I could push for some training in one of these aircraft... or do you think they would only take a previous guy...
I wrote down to all the assignment folks down at AFPC to see if they had any info... anyone know the contact info for the particular section down at AFPC who would be the "experts" on this subject?

 

[Blacktop]

Last I heard was 40,000 out by 2011. From what I have read, it seems that congress has not mandated the cuts. It is the Air Force requesting the cuts to reduce costs to aid in fleet modernization. I heard that a congressional subcommittee disapproved the TERA (temporary early retirement authority) option although I can find no news on the subject. They did approve the VSI (voluntary seperation incentive)/SSB (special seperation bonus) options supposedly at up too 4x the involuntary seperation rates. Although I'm guessing that just like the early 90's most pilots probably will not be eligible for the VSI/SSB options. I am also guessing that the selective continuation for twice defered captains and majors will start being disapproved soon. I have heard unofficially that the VSI/SSB options will start 1 Oct this year. As a side note in the early 90's 70% of those who were involuntarily seperated had 9-20 years of service. We won't really know what to expect until the info is released. They will definetly keep close hold on the plan because it will be done in phases with the deal changing in each phase. I have read several times that DOD absolutely wants the involuntary option to use as motivation to take voluntary offers. It's going to get ugly real quick!

http://www.afa.org/magazine/feb2006/0206watch.asp
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/17xx/doc1772/drawdown.pdf
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR1327.sum.pdf

 

[Huggyu2]

I haven't heard "the caveat" for Recce pilots. The U-2 community is being decimated over the next 15-18 months, due to all of the high-time, passed over Majors being forced to retire at 20 years. Oddly enough, though, they are still interviewing active duty Navy/Marine/Coast Guard pilots to come to the U-2. Go figure: force the retirement of the high time active duty U-2 pilot, and at the same time, bring a Navy pilot (with zero hours in the U-2) into the USAF to replace him.

 

[TENWATT]

Boss came through for a CC call and said from what he has seen the 57,000 force reduction was mostly enlisted maybe 2,000 officers the rest enlisted and civilians. That is above and beyond the force shaping that happens in Sept 06 which is about 1600 1 Lt and Capts.

Bigger concern was the $9 billion dollar cut in AF budget.

He did say that rated manning was approaching 90% but in the wrong ranks thus all the Maj and Lt Cols in the cockpit vice the Lts and Capts.

One commanders perspective

 

[galaxy5]

BengalsFan,

I've heard rumors about offering bonuses to separated Recce folks to come back on Active Duty. I don't think that'll ever happen but still indicates the problem they've got. I would expect that they'll only consider prior Recce folks. They have enough trouble training initial qual folks (with all their jets on the road right now). This is part of the problem. They can't squeeze enough people through the training pipeline.

As far as Force Shaping goes:
1) I wouldn't expect any early Retirement offerings (retirements before 20 years)
2) There will probably be bonuses to have people leave (SSB/VSI)
3) Pilots, Navs and ABMs will not be heavily targeted
4) If you're a passed over guy, over 20 years, in a healthy (or fat) career field you might want to freshen up your resume.