AF committed to demobilizing Guard, Reserve airmen

11/12/2002 - WASHINGTON -- The Air Force extended more than 14,000 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve airmen into their second year of mobilization because of operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle.

Air Force senior leaders, aware of the hardships this extension has caused many Air Reserve Component members, are committed to demobilizing these airmen as quickly as possible, said Col. Michael R. Scott, chief of the Air Force's war mobilization plans division at the Pentagon.

"The Guard and Reserve have done and continue to do a great job supporting ongoing operations," Scott said. "But we aren't going to keep them mobilized just because it's convenient."

John C. Truesdell, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for reserve affairs, said major commands will be responsible for putting together plans for demobilization of their people.

"We've directed the major commands to do continuous assessments of their manpower requirements and provide us with 'burn-down' plans to demobilize these ARC members as quickly as possible," Truesdell said.

Burn-down plans provide the Air Staff and MAJCOMs a tool to determine which members are absolutely necessary for mission accomplishment, Scott said. Every plan is scrutinized and must address why certain functions or tasks can't be accomplished by active duty.

"We're serious in our review to make sure any requirement that does call for the continued mobilization of airmen is justified and absolutely vital to mission accomplishment," Scott said. "The MAJCOMs are diligent in this process but must prove they can't do the mission without mobilized airmen."

These plans also address ways to shift more support for missions to the active duty forces, Truesdell said.

"The Air Force only wants to keep airmen mobilized just long enough for the active force to realign manpower and take other mitigating actions to meet the requirements created by the war against terror," Truesdell said. "Hopefully, most extended airmen will only spend a portion of their second year mobilized. Unfortunately, there may be some who are required to spend the entire year mobilized."

The service is working on several initiatives to expedite the demobilization of Guard and Reserve airmen and relieve active-duty manpower shortages.

Among these initiatives are attempts to reclassify certain nonmilitary essential jobs, especially in high-demand, low-density specialties, allowing them to be filled by civilian employees or contracted out to the commercial sector. Retraining efforts are being studied for their ability to fill critical positions with active duty, allowing even more Guard and Reserve airmen to be demobilized.

Funding is also being sought for technological improvements and construction projects, such as facility upgrades or monitoring equipment on perimeter fences that would reduce demand on a specialty and make it less manpower intensive, Truesdell said.

"The burn-down plans and these initiatives are all aimed at one thing: getting our mobilized airmen home to their families and allowing them to return to their civilian careers as soon as possible," Truesdell said. "Our chief objective is the retention of precious reserve component manpower and the return to a more predictable steady state."