Citing concerns that the service might otherwise be overstaffed by as many as 7,000 by October 2012, the Air Force announced plans to implement involuntary force management measures. Much of the focus will fall upon officers, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norman Schwartz said Feb. 2. Force-shaping boards will review Junior officers’ records in the coming months, with those in the judge advocate general, biomedical science corps, and medical service corps facing scrutiny first – likely in May. Those officers in this group, who received their commissions between 2006 and 2008 and are not selected for retention, will have to leave the Air Force by Oct. 1. Mid-grade officers will face a reduction-in-force board in September. Officers in this category, who received their commissions between 1999 and 2005 and who wish to avoid facing the board, have a one-month window in March to apply for voluntary separation pay. Both boards will retain the top 90 percent of officers in their categories in eligible year-groups. Lieutenant colonels in the line Air Force, chaplain, and medical service corps, who have been passed over for promotion twice, and colonels with more than four years in grade who have not faced a selective early retirement board (SERB) in the past five years, will face such boards between October 2011 and January 2012. Officers who are not selected to remain on active duty can apply for positions in the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve. They also receive veterans’ preference when applying for federal civil service jobs.
