Air Force cancels Officer Training Boards

germb747

germb747

Well-Known Member
Air Force Recruiting Service Public Affairs

4/20/2010 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Air Force Recruiting Service officials here announced April 14 that the Air Force is canceling the upcoming summer Officer Training School board and possibly other future boards until further notice.

The board is being canceled due to the Air Force's recently announced overall force management program to reduce authorized end-strength. End-strength is the maximum number of personnel each service is authorized annually by Congress and limited by Department of Defense budget constraints.

The number of boards held annually is determined by how many officers the primary commissioning sources anticipate graduating each year. Due to the Air Force's force management program, Air Force Recruiting Service will be limiting line officer accessions per force management program guidance.

"Air Force retention is currently at a 15-year high," said Brig. Gen. Alfred Stewart, AFRS commander. "Although this situation is a tremendous testament to the dedication of our great Airmen and the high regard they have for the Air Force as a career and as a way of life, we now have more Airmen serving than we are authorized by Congressional mandate. Therefore, unless the Air Force takes aggressive and immediate actions to balance the force, this overage will continue to grow."

The OTS board cancellation is not permanent and selection boards will be held sometime in the future, General Stewart added. Candidates are encouraged to keep in touch with their recruiter and periodically refer to Recruiter Online for more information.

To read more about the Air Force's force management program, visit the Air Force Personnel Center's Web site.

http://www.aetc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200683
 
germb747 said:
Air Force Recruiting Service Public Affairs

4/20/2010 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Air Force Recruiting Service officials here announced April 14 that the Air Force is canceling the upcoming summer Officer Training School board and possibly other future boards until further notice.

The board is being canceled due to the Air Force's recently announced overall force management program to reduce authorized end-strength. End-strength is the maximum number of personnel each service is authorized annually by Congress and limited by Department of Defense budget constraints.

The number of boards held annually is determined by how many officers the primary commissioning sources anticipate graduating each year. Due to the Air Force's force management program, Air Force Recruiting Service will be limiting line officer accessions per force management program guidance.

"Air Force retention is currently at a 15-year high," said Brig. Gen. Alfred Stewart, AFRS commander. "Although this situation is a tremendous testament to the dedication of our great Airmen and the high regard they have for the Air Force as a career and as a way of life, we now have more Airmen serving than we are authorized by Congressional mandate. Therefore, unless the Air Force takes aggressive and immediate actions to balance the force, this overage will continue to grow."

The OTS board cancellation is not permanent and selection boards will be held sometime in the future, General Stewart added. Candidates are encouraged to keep in touch with their recruiter and periodically refer to Recruiter Online for more information.

To read more about the Air Force's force management program, visit the Air Force Personnel Center's Web site.

http://www.aetc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200683
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That really sucks for people applying or about to get an application going. I know a lot of kids at the school I teach at who were going to apply after graduation. Bummer.

About the bold part. I would kind of interested to know how much of the retention is because of dedication to the service verse the lack of a stable civilian market.
 
That's what OTS is for. It expands and contracts based on the needs of the AF for officers. In the early to mid '90s, OTS was actually closed for a few years.
 
drew09 said:
Thank god I'm going to FT in a month. :beer:
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That's no guarantee -- you'll be accepted into the POC based partly on your FT performance.

If the AF is looking to slim officer accessions, they may be taking a close look at ROTC commissionees as well.
 
Hacker15e said:
That's no guarantee -- you'll be accepted into the POC based partly on your FT performance.

If the AF is looking to slim officer accessions, they may be taking a close look at ROTC commissionees as well.
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Touche. I still consider myself lucky though.
 
The article mentioned the AF having the highest retention rate in 15 yrs. Why is this? Are airmen just not wanting to get out these days?
 
Been coming for a while, especially after they cancelled 10-02. Rated boards were still meeting for FY10 though with fewer selections than seen in previous years.

at1024 said:
The article mentioned the AF having the highest retention rate in 15 yrs. Why is this? Are airmen just not wanting to get out these days?
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With the economy in bad shape and high unemployment everywhere people are thinking twice about leaving the AF for the civilian sector. It's not just the Air Force though, seems to be pretty widespread among each branch:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123200327
 
at1024 said:
The article mentioned the AF having the highest retention rate in 15 yrs. Why is this? Are airmen just not wanting to get out these days?
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Recession, my friends. Where are people gonna go that offers similar pay and benefits these days?
 
Retention is part of it. If what I heard is true about the 2011 military budget get ready- it will make the post Gulf War budgets look generous- I had to park my helicopters for over a month and get my colonel to sign every vehicle dispatch to ensure it was necessary. Think Carter years. Aircraft currency will be looking at an aircraft in flight in the last 90 days.
 
Blackhawk said:
Retention is part of it. If what I heard is true about the 2011 military budget get ready- it will make the post Gulf War budgets look generous- I had to park my helicopters for over a month and get my colonel to sign every vehicle dispatch to ensure it was necessary. Think Carter years. Aircraft currency will be looking at an aircraft in flight in the last 90 days.
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Wow. I do remember the post Gulf years when the mass RIFs came about.

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm only a part-time reservist.
 
Blackhawk said:
Retention is part of it. If what I heard is true about the 2011 military budget get ready- it will make the post Gulf War budgets look generous- I had to park my helicopters for over a month and get my colonel to sign every vehicle dispatch to ensure it was necessary. Think Carter years. Aircraft currency will be looking at an aircraft in flight in the last 90 days.
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You know...I am all about trimming it up some. In the C-5 training world, we are flying beyond what is required for a training sortie. "So you got all your training done in 2.5 hours? That's great...go ahead and fly for another 1.5 hours since that's what we planned on". When asked about it, the answer is always the same "if we don't use it, we'll lose it". Horse dung.

This happens almost EVERYDAY 2-4 times A DAY. It doesn't take very good math to determine we are burning money and Jet A like it's going out of style. Don't get me wrong...I like flying as much as the next guy, but the amount of WASTE I see everyday is astounding. Just for our ONE squadron...if we fly an extra 2 hours a day (being VERY conservative here) 5 days a week for 40 weeks...that's 8 MILLION POUNDS of Jet A. Oh...but I better turn the lights off in the office when I leave. It makes me sick the amount of waste I see in the guberment.
 
MikeD said:
Wow. I do remember the post Gulf years when the mass RIFs came about.

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm only a part-time reservist.
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I saw pilots straight out of flight school assigned to positions such as XO of the veterinary clinic. There was no money to send them to advanced aircraft transitions, no money for flight training, and all the non-flying positions in aviation units were filled quickly. My wife's year group had an LT retention board, then a CPT promotion board. Between the two the promotion rate to captain was less than 75%.
 
Blackhawk said:
I saw pilots straight out of flight school assigned to positions such as XO of the veterinary clinic. There was no money to send them to advanced aircraft transitions, no money for flight training, and all the non-flying positions in aviation units were filled quickly. My wife's year group had an LT retention board, then a CPT promotion board. Between the two the promotion rate to captain was less than 75%.
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When I first joined the AF, you couldn't swing a stick without hitting 3 or 4 casual LTs that were "waiting for a slot". Those dudes hung around for quite a long time. Nothing like "being guaranteed a pilot slot" and flying a desk for 2+ years.

So...all you young'ins who have dreams of joining the military to "get jet time" be prepared to BE AN OFFICER FIRST.
 
MikeD said:
Wow. I do remember the post Gulf years when the mass RIFs came about.

All I can say is that I'm glad I'm only a part-time reservist.
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I don't know that reserve units will be safe, although the financial impact will be far less on you. I think you'll see services cutting just about everything to save some general's pet project. I saw this in the 90's with the Comanche in the Army. Everything in Army aviation was sacrificed in an attempt to save this project, including improvements in ASE (aircraft survivability equipment, such as IR jammers), identified as major shortcomings in the Gulf War. The result? Numerous crews were lost to IR missles in Iraq due to these same shortcomings identified a decade earlier (poor tactics did not help but that's a different story that I won't discuss on this board). Finally General Cody stepped in and cancelled the Comanche so that Army Aviation could free up the funds for some of these critical projects.
 
We just had a commander's call down here at Laughlin, where the Group CC described how the upcoming RIF may be applied to UPT candidates. Basically, if you wash out, you're done. Not just at UPT. With the Air Force. Done. Bye-Bye. Although I don't think it would happen, he even added in that those in the audience that had attended the Academy could even get stuck with the bill for their education. So, not only did you fail out of UPT, you got kicked out, lost your job, and owe the government around $200,000. Ouch.
 
Blackhawk said:
I saw pilots straight out of flight school assigned to positions such as XO of the veterinary clinic.
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I remember one fellow back from a combat tour who became the assistant motor pool officer. He was rotary wing only and he was allowed to ride along in a single pilot fixed wing aircraft for four hours a month to keep his flight pay. There was a waiting list of similarly situated pilots looking to get their ride along opportunities.
 
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