Personnel chief gives force development update at AFA

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. David A. Jablonski
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel told Airmen at the 2004 Air Force Association’s 2004 Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition on Sept. 14 about three key programs that will shape their service.

Adhering to the theme of this year’s AFA conference -- professional development for the total force -- Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady discussed force development, service delivery and force-shaping initiatives.

Everybody does the best job when they have the opportunity to develop to the highest level they can or to the level they aspire, General Brady said about force development. The Air Force’s vision for the aspiring leader includes interchangeability. Examples include making command chief master sergeants perform duties more like their major command commanders and taking senior officers out of “stovepipe” career channels and training them to do more than one job.

“We’re giving people a wider perspective,” the general said. “And we want to do it in a systematic and deliberate way to develop both the necessary skills and the enduring competencies -- the enduring competency being leadership. And we want to develop interchangeable leaders in two ways: across specialties and across the components of the force.”

General Brady also said the Air Force should be asking if a given job, traditionally done by an officer, can be done just as well, or better, by an noncommissioned officer, civilian or another member of the total force.

The second area the general discussed concerned more efficient personnel-service delivery. The Air Force goal calls for moving 80 percent of the civilian and military personnel services to self-service Web applications, 15 percent to a contact call center and 5 percent to remain as face-to-face transactions.

“But we cannot afford to have anybody dial the call center and get a voice message that says ‘your call is very important to us.’ We’ve got to do this in a way that takes care of our force,” the general said.

The final topic, force shaping, provided the hardest data about the realities of maintaining the corps of Airmen at congressionally designated levels.

“We are authorized 359,700 people,” General Brady said. “And we have about 379,000 people. We have to get back down to about 359,000 by this time next year.”

The recent spike in manpower was caused by overreaction to missed recruiting goals in 1999 and a huge surge in retention caused by patriotism following the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, he said.

“We bring in about 37,000 people into our Air Force every year, and it would be real nice if 37,000 went home every year,” the general said. “That isn’t happening.

General Brady said it costs between $1 billion and $1.5 billion to have an extra 10,000 people; therefore, it costs between $2 billion and $3 billon to pay for an extra 20,000 people.

You can do a lot of training and equipping with $3 billion,” he said.