While many Air Force Reservists and civilians know their jobs will change under base realignment and closure, or BRAC, one of the most difficult things to grasp is how those shifts will happen.

To date, none of the BRAC actions affecting Air Force Reserve Command units will move entire units from one location to another, and no one will automatically get a job at new locations. If affected by BRAC, old jobs will go away and people will have to compete for new positions wherever available.

“Keeping our highly trained, highly experienced people is vital to our command’s success,” said Steve Mann, director of personnel at Headquarters AFRC here.

To ease the transition, gaining units will give first priority to those moving under BRAC.

“Our goal is to take care of our people,” Mr. Mann said.

To do that, the command is providing full-time civilians and Reservists new Web-based job placement services. Called clearinghouses, these virtual job fairs take personal career and location preferences into account and work to match BRAC-displaced people with new opportunities.

“The clearinghouses will allow military personnel flights to work with commanders and individuals to give BRAC-impacted people priority over new hiring or internal placement,” Mr. Mann said.

According to “A BRAC Guide for Civilian and Military Personnel Issues” -- released by the command in January -- gaining units must give first priority for placement in vacant positions to displaced people who register in one of the clearinghouses.

The technical reason why BRAC-displaced workers must find new jobs at new locations is because of the “transfer of function” rules. None of the command’s BRAC actions qualify as a transfer of function. In cases where a job move is not a transfer of function, employees do not have a right to move with their job to the new unit. While employees may be given a chance to apply, they may have to compete with other candidates for the job.

Command people displaced by BRAC can learn more by accessing the guide from a military computer at www.mil.afrc.af.mil/hq/dp/brac.

(Air Force Reserve Command News Service)