offer expanded waiver criteria for interservice transfers to the Army as part of the Blue to Green program.
Obviously to the Army LITS.
I highly doubt you will see alot of AFA cadets take them up on this offer. Let's remember the AF is the corporate branch of the military.
There are not going to be a lot of people screaming like Horshack from Welcome Back Mr. Kotter...PICK ME PICK ME! You will get some, but they are the ones that applied to multiple branches, yet then again I question 4 yrs of being ingrained that the AF is the best branch, how many will say PICK ME PICK because they now believe the Army is the best branch.
I think where you will get this interservice from is the OCS, who say I want to serve now. It is very difficult to get UPT from OCS, so you are looking at people who would be Intel, MSSQ, CE, AF, etc in either branch and their emotional tie to the branch is much lower, it is more about serving the country in any branch then being in a particular branch or job.
As far OTS and ROTC, that is no real biggie. People should have also seen this coming down the road, at least starting last yr when many scholarships were being given out in the 2K range and not the typical Type 2 or 7. In other words the AF has already slowed down the ROTC route preemptively.
Additionally ROTC grads get the last slots, after the AFA. Fiscally moving them from 10 to 11, means that instead of starting in Sept 10, they will start in October 10, 30 days later. Remember the military fiscal calendar is Oct 1 to Sept 30. The majority of AFA cadets do not start until July. Bullet was an ROTC grad, he went active in March, @ 9 months after he was commissioned. Don't start reading into it more than a minor slow down in the pipeline. I don't know how many are commissioned every yr in the ROTC program, but my guess would be that this might affect 10% of the grads. I am betting that there are at least 5K ROTC grads every yr. especially when you look at large dets like OSU, UVA, ER, with 100 cadets ea per grade, add in schools like A&M, Citadel, VMI, VaTech, UMD, UMiami, etc. and you can hit @10K. 447 being delayed until October instead of November is NOTHING!
Palace Chase has always been a great asset, but it will be very hard since the economy is in a poor situation.
As I stated on CC, look at the whole article. Not every section of the AF is up for RIF. It is code specific. If anything cadets should look at those codes and question if they want to enter the field.
Secondly don't freak, especially those going the flying route. Here's why:
1. Bullet 6 mos ago was sent an email by the AF if he would consider stepping back into the jet.
UH NO...we would be killed by the financial paycut! However, if the AF was abundant in fliers they would have never sent out the mass email asking new retirees to return.
2. Our close friend left in 01 to fly commercial, he now is stepping back in as a UAV pilot. He was gone for 9 yrs! He is coming back at the exact same rank and yrs served, O4. He is at Creech right now.
If the AF was getting rid of everyone across the board, they wouldn't be bringing him back in!
3. Bullet's FTU classmate left also back in 04 to fly commercial. He just completed his TX course and is an IP at Columbus as an O4.
Again, if there is was a huge problem across the board they wouldn't bring him back either.
This is about the the job position...guessing that if you are a MS person than you might be on the chopping block, probably same for SP or CE, since many of these jobs are now contracted out.
Have to ask why isn't the Army having these issues also? The economy is bad all around, this would lead most people to believe that a paycheck is the prime motivator to stay. If it isn't and it is morale, that begs a different question. Why is the morale so low that their members are willing to leave. Yes, I know multiple rotations in the sandbox add up, but the reality is something the Army forgets to acknowledge, the AF has never left the Sandbox, we have been there since 1990, 20 yrs, not 9. We do 6 mos rotations every 18 mos, in other words 3 yr assignment, 1 will be in the sandbox, with 1 yr remotes thrown in for good measure.
Forgot to say, so people don't think I am slamming the Army, could it also be they did their bulimic purge a few yrs back and now they need Company grade to correct the Field to Company ratio?
People who are new to the military do not realize, that there is a % of Flag to Field, Field to Company, Officers to Enlisted. The percentages are mandated, they are not willy nilly, i.e. FY10 we will have 80% enlisted, 20% Officers, FY 11 we will have 60% enlisted, 40% officers. Same is true for the amount of company, field and flag. Ever wonder why it takes a yr or so to pin on O4, it is because they need Field (O4-6) to be promoted or retire. They can't promote until the numbers work out. Why do SERBs exist, so they can promote O4 and 5's. Why do OCS numbers change yrly, because they are backfilling SA and ROTC numbers...i.e. 1300 enter in 10, 1300 graduate, they only wanted/needed 1300 guess what that means to OCS...they don't need you and won't be accepting bulk requests.
The military is like any other business, it has a strategic plan. They will constantly address their plan and rejig it to obtain their goals.