More 6-month tours for airmen - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

More 6-month tours for airmen

See you in six months: You’re hearing that wistful farewell as more of you pack up for longer deployments.

Growing war efforts and the Air Force’s now-abandoned drawdown have converged, forcing a spike in six-month tours.

The number of airmen leaving on six-month orders has jumped about 20 percent in the past year, from roughly 12,000 in mid-2008 to just shy of 15,000 as of the end of July.

Today, more than half of deploying active-duty airmen leave for six months — plus the weeks they spend training. Airmen on nine-month and year-long tours raise the total of those deployed six months or longer to nearly 60 percent.

When the Air Force looks into its crystal ball to see if even more of the longer deployments are ahead, the prediction for the near future is staying the course — no big increases, no big dips.

“That requirements have increased over time — that is common knowledge,” said Col. Paul Ackerley, who oversees the Air Force Personnel Center’s deployment directorate. “We’re not seeing huge spikes in the short term.”

Neither the drawdown in Iraq nor the buildup in Afghanistan has yet to affect the total number of deployments.

The average number of deployed airmen — active-duty, Guard and Reserve — is about 35,500 and has been at that level for the past two years, Defense Department numbers show. About 28,000 are deployed overseas to Central Command.

Since October 2001, more than 375,000 airmen have deployed to the war zones, according to the Pentagon. A little more than half deployed only once.

Why so long?

When the Air Force decided in 2005 to cut its active-duty force from 359,700 to 316,000 this year — the current number is about 328,000 — it didn’t take into account the growing need for many of the axed specialties.

Communications officers, for example, were asked to leave in droves, their numbers dropping from 4,371 four years ago to 2,992 now. The number of security forces officers fell from 949 to 698.

With an uncertain Air Force future and a strong civilian job market, many officers thought they would have been crazy not to separate — with all the cash and incentives that the Air Force flashed their way.

Midcareer officers received money and, if they earned advanced degrees on the Air Force’s dime, had their service commitments waived. Qualifying captains and majors — 3,200 needed to go in 2007 — snapped up a lump-sum payment worth up to about three times their annual base pay. Of course, they lost their retirement benefits.

The drawdown ended in June 2008, when Air Force leaders and Defense Secretary Robert Gates realized cutting airmen while increasing missions was a bad idea.

“We know this, and are working to ease the burden,” Gates told airmen at Langley Air Force Base, Va., that month. “For example, I intend immediately to stop further reductions in Air Force personnel.”

Even in specialties where the Air Force added airmen — the number of enlisted security forces is 25,743, about 2,000 more than in 2005 — the deployment demand still outpaces the supply of airmen.

Not long ago, deployments were only half as long. In 2000, the Air Force started its “air expeditionary force” system for spreading deployments across the service — airmen would be vulnerable for three months out of every 15 months.

The dual missions in Iraq and Afghanistan pushed the standard deployment to four months; no airman was supposed to deploy more than once every 20 months.

Then, the Air Force found itself extending many deployments yet again, by another two months, to staff joint positions and jobs the Army didn’t have soldiers to fill.

In 2008, the Air Force dropped the four-month standard for a need-based system. It assigned career fields to five “tempo bands” ranging from being vulnerable to deployments for six months every year to four months every 20 months.

The career fields with the highest deployment tempos primarily are involved in base operations and working side-by-side with the Army. Many new six-month deployments — about 2,800 positions — were done by airmen in the career fields of medicine, logistics, civil engineering and communications.

The 5th Combat Communications Group, whose headquarters is at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., can vouch for the Air Force’s numbers on longer deployments. All of its members are pulling six-month tours, including group commander Col. Jose Rivera.

“I am deployed to Baghdad for six months,” Rivera said from his office there.

The 5th’s mission is unique. Instead of focusing on communications needs at Robins, the 5th’s airmen in 33 Air Force Specialty Codes deploy to provide communications, electronic and postal services anywhere in the world. If the airmen aren’t overseas, they are training for the next deployment.

With the current schedule, airmen deploying for six months can expect to be home for at least a year, Chief Master Sgt. Curtis Storms, the group’s superintendent, said in a telephone interview from Robins.

The deployment mission doesn’t qualify the group for extra airmen or personnel with more experience than other communication units, Rivera said.

As drawdown efforts began cutting the ranks of communications airmen, the group lost its numbers but not its obligations.

Today, about a third of the squadron’s members hold the rank of senior airman or below.

The group’s deployments and youthfulness don’t affect the 5th’s readiness, the two leaders said. They pointed out that the 5th earned the Air Force’s 2008 award for best large communications unit, while a deployed branch in Iraq, the 447th Expeditionary Communications Squadron, took the service’s best small communications unit honor.

“They bring an esprit de corps to the tasks,” Storms said of his airmen.

All’s fair in war ... or is it?

When airmen discuss deployments, the issue of fairness inevitably comes up. It’s no surprise that those who have already done two, three, even four tours wonder why they’re going so often.

There are whispers that airmen use medical conditions to stay home or claim they can’t deploy because they intend to leave the service. Others make no secret that they think the burden falls on midlevel noncommissioned officers.

Senior NCOs, in fact, want new Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy to make deployment fairness one of the first issues he looks at. They contend heavy deployments are why retention lags among those E-5s and E-6s who form the force’s backbone.

“They’re saying, ‘Wait a minute, I’m on my fourth deployment and Johnny ... over here who’s been in 14 years never went,’” a wing command chief told Air Force Times in June. “There’s no balance. That’s a huge one we’ve got to fix,” said the chief, who requested anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the subject.

Though the senior NCOs think more needs to be done, the Air Force has acknowledged the connection between high operations tempo and low retention of first- and second-term airmen in key career fields.

This year, the service expanded its bonuses in hopes of boosting re-up rates. For example, communications airmen in the 3C2X1 network integration positions qualify for a bonus multiplier of three for their first re-enlistment, and airmen in construction trades are eligible for a multiplier of 4.5 at their first and second re-enlistments.

While working to keep E-5s and E-6s is a step in the right direction, the service needs to put a stop to those gaming the system, the senior NCOs said.

A personnel chief told Air Force Times that airmen do find ways to get out of going, despite the service’s attempts to make more airmen deployable.

“They really need to close it down and say, ‘We’re not going to allow people to get out of these deployments,’” said that chief, who also asked not to be identified.

The numbers, however, don’t support all of the chiefs’ assertions.

About 90 percent of the service’s 328,000 active-duty airmen are in deployable positions, Air Force data show. Airmen not matched with deployment vulnerability are often in training or attending professional schools.

Figures for deployments by rank show the percentage of airmen deployed in any rank other than airman basic, airman or second lieutenant is roughly the same as their percentage in the service. Newly enlisted or commissioned airmen rarely deploy because most are still learning skills for their career fields. In 2008, only 1.5 percent of the deployed officers were second lieutenants.

In April, for example, technical sergeants accounted for 18 percent of the deployed enlisted airmen and 16 percent of the overall enlisted force. Majors made up about 23 percent of deployed officers and about 22 percent of the commissioned service.

At times over the years, the concerns about airmen avoiding deployments by seeking medical deferments had validity.

A 2007 Air Force Audit Agency Report faulted the service for not reviewing airmen’s medical deployment status often enough. It pointed to the case of a nurse who couldn’t deploy for medical reasons, but had gone without a medical evaluation for more than two years even though there was high deployment demand for her skills.

That report and other high-level concerns prompted changes to how and when airmen are judged on whether they can deploy.

In his year of overseeing the deployment directorate, Ackerley has not heard of any cases where airmen used illness to stay home. Every airmen who gets a deployment notice gets a medical check at his base, he said.

“It’s far different than in the past,” the colonel said.

Three years ago, the service revised how it classifies the deployability of airmen who have ongoing medical problems. Instead of one classification, the Air Force adopted a three-tier system, with two of the tiers allowing deployments if there are adequate medical facilities where an airman is deploying.

An airman in the third tier — nondeployable — can still ask his commander for permission to deploy.

The flexibility means commanders and airmen can find locations that meet the airman’s medical needs, Ackerley said.

Stories abound about airmen with enlistments soon to expire. They have been rumored to turn down deployments because the deployments extended beyond their enlistment and then re-enlist after the deployment window passed.

But whether the stories are true is debatable.

Personnel policy, according to spokesman Kenny Pruitt, dictates that an airman who turns down a deployment citing his intention to leave the service before the deployment ends must sign a form stating he has declined the assignment. That paperwork starts the airman’s out-processing.