Persuasive Essay

United States Air Force Enlisted Force Management Programs

Maurice A. Vales

COMM/215

April 14, 2014

BSIT

United States Air Force Enlisted Force Management Programs

Back in December of 2013 the Secretary, Chief of Staff and the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force sent a letter “To the Airmen of the United States Air Force” (Fanning, Welsh III, & Cody, 2013) quoting “Over the next few years, we may have to reduce our force by approximately 25,000 Airmen and as many as 550 aircraft if we do not receive any budget relief”. In turn, the United States Air Force implemented back in January 2014 several force management programs to reduce the number of Airmen. I do not agree on how the programs are going to take place though out the calendar year of 2014, there are better ways on implementing the required personnel reductions. There are several programs available but I am only going to cover Temporary Early Retirement Authority, Quality Force Review Board, and Enlisted Retention for Senior Airman through Senior Master Sergeant Programs. By implementing these programs in such way it is going to put a toll on the force left behind to complete the job.

The programs that I’m going to cover are the ones that will have a bigger impact on the force because a member with great skills could elect to retire early, a member with negative reporting identifiers could be forced to separate or a member may be discharged before their term of service expires. The first program available was Temporary Early Retirement Authority. This program allows certain military members to request retirement prior to completing 20 years of total active military service. Airmen in overage Air Force Specialty Codes with at least 15 years, but less than 20 years in service can apply with some exclusions. Another program is the Quality Force Review Board. This program identifies certain individuals with negative quality factors, here are a few: disqualifications from training, discharge...