Air Force experiments with new career paths

Nearly 40 airmen will help test the waters for a new personnel strategy in the Air Force and throughout the military as a whole.

The Air Force selected 35 enlisted and officer airmen to participate in a program letting them take one to three years off from the military to develop personally and professionally.

The program is a part of a larger effort by the Defense Department and some members of Congress to make the military personnel system more flexible so it can retain and recruit the best talent possible.

The Career Intermission Program (CIP) has been available to airmen since 2014 and 59 service members have taken advantage of it. Now, due to the 2016 defense authorization act, there is no limit on the number of airmen the Air Force can select for CIP.

“Airmen permanently separate from the Air Force for many reasons, some of which are short-term issues,” said military personnel specialist Adriana Bazan from the Air Force Personnel Center. “CIP offers the flexibility to attend to personal and professional needs without having to choose one over the other.”

CIP is one way the Air Force can scoot around some of the “up or out” restrictions mandated by law.

Currently, officers are given a certain amount of time in each rank and must be promoted to the next rank within that time. They face promotion boards, which either pass over a candidate or promote him. Two passes and the officer must leave the service.

Taking time off to get a degree or care for a sick family member does not fit into the promotion board schedule.

Enlisted airmen go through a similar promotion procedure.

Those criteria pushed out some talented people in the Air Force, Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services headquarters for the Air Force said this fall. It forces some people that are functioning well to leave the military.

Grosso questioned that system during her speech and said she hoped Congress could give the Air Force some more leniency in applying up or out.

“How can we think differently about career progression?” Grosso said. “You don’t have the option of saying ‘Hey, I don’t want to compete [for promotion] this time. I know I haven’t done things I need to do. I frankly am happy where I am.  … You’ll hear some pilots say ‘Hey can’t I just fly for several years?’”

She added that some personnel told her they love being at the base level and in a wing unit, even those that are captain billets.

Grosso said the Air Force is hoping for some flexibility from Congress in the next year or two where it would allow individuals to take themselves out of the promotion process or change the length of time officers can stay at a rank.

Up or out “is a system that was designed for a different force, so in the force we have today, the talent that we need, I think [up or out] is too rigid. But, I do want to qualify, I’m not trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater because it’s given us the most competent force we’ve ever had, so there may be parts of that we want to keep. How do you get the best of both worlds?” Grosso said.

The Air Force is realizing it needs to become more attractive to talented professionals as the service expands and deals with serious personnel shortages.

The Air Force is expanding to 317,000 airmen and is authorized to expand to 321,000 in 2017. Meanwhile, the service is still unable to recruit and retain troops in key positions. The Air Force is down about 4,000 maintainers to work on aircraft and is in need of 700 pilots.

The Air Force made some changes this year to lessen some of the burden on its airmen and make their jobs more appealing.

The service cut some additional duties airmen are responsible for and will reduce mandatory training starting in 2017.

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