The Air Force has chosen 38 airmen to take up to three years off in the second round of its career intermission program.
The selectees for CIP include 20 enlisted airmen — 11 women and nine men — and 18 officers, or 10 women and eight men, the Air Force Personnel Center said Jan. 12. All selectees are active duty, and no reservists applied, AFPC said. The lowest-ranked selectee was a staff sergeant, and the highest-ranked was a major.
AFPC said last November that 59 airmen in all applied, 22 officers and 37 enlisted. The selection board convened in September to review applicants' records, considering their leadership and duty performance, professional qualities, depth and breadth of experience, achievements, and other factors that illustrated their potential to serve in the Air Force after returning from a break.
The Air Force announced its sabbatical program in 2014, and said it wanted to allow airmen to take up to three years off to start a family, go back to school or pursue other personal goals. The first year it was in effect, 46 airmen applied and 32 — 14 officers and 18 enlisted — were selected.
When he first announced the program, former Air Force personnel chief Lt. Gen. Samuel Cox said that the Air Force was concerned that some high-performing airmen were leaving the service because they wanted to start a family, for example. The sabbatical program, based on one successfully piloted by the Navy, is intended to try to hold on to those airmen.
The Air Force is now authorized to let up to 40 airmen — 20 officers and 20 enlisted — participate in CIP each year until the end of 2019. But the Air Force wants to do more. Last year, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said she hoped to expand CIP beyond the current maximum of 40, although the Air Force has not yet said how many it wants to take part.
While airmen are on their sabbaticals, they enter the Individual Ready Reserve and continue to receive their usual medical and dental coverage. They also receive a small stipend of 1/15th their usual monthly basic bay.
The Air Force pays to move an airman from his or her duty station to any location in the U.S., and then moves the airman to his or her follow-on base at the end of their break. Airmen also have to check in with the CIP's program manager once a month.
After finishing their break, airmen will be required to spend twice as long in active-duty status as they spent in CIP. That is, someone who took the full three years off would then have to serve six more years after returning.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
