Jumper speaks on decreased Air Force manning

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mona Ferrell
  • U.S. Air Forces in Europe Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  A decrease in recruiting rather than forced reductions is the right way to reduce manning, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper on Aug. 30.

Throughout this process, ensuring America’s Airmen know they are appreciated is a No. 1 priority, he said during a visit here.

“Retention and recruiting for the Air Force throughout this crisis over the last three years has remained superb,” the general said. “Even after stop-loss was lifted, people feared that Airmen would be leaving the Air Force in great numbers, especially in the Guard and Reserve; it just didn’t happen.

“And so we find ourselves in a position where we have 20,000 people more than we should have by law,” he said. “I want to try and deal with it without any forced reductions in the force. I don’t want anybody to be forced to leave (who) doesn’t want to. The secretary of the Air Force (Dr. James G. Roche) and I are absolutely dedicated to making sure we don’t break faith with our Airmen.”

To get the manning numbers to where they should be and keep Airmen’s faith, recruiting is going to be cut by about one-third for a year, General Jumper said.

“We’ve never tried this before, but I think it’s the right thing to do” he said. “Taking that (recruiting) loss in one year (should help us) get back to the numbers we’re supposed to have, and we hope that the excesses in the few previous years will help fill in those holes as far as grade opportunity. …”

Taking care of people and the Air Force organization as a whole is all about knowing where the critical shortages are and ensuring the right people have the right skills and are doing the right things, General Jumper said.

“We went for years during the ‘90s making cuts in people,” he said. “We would cut 10 percent, and then 15 percent and then 20 percent -- and then we finally ended up cutting a total of 40 percent of our force. … In a lot of cases, those slots didn’t go away, and people with other skills then migrated into them. You have people with essential skills (who) we need, now filling slots that should have been taken off the books and never were.

“It’s a hard thing to do, and it’s very traumatic, but (during) the first two years of my tenure, we got the books balanced, and we got the people out of the slots that were supposed to be emptied; we got the right people in the right slots,” he said. “Only then did we really know what our critical shortages were.”

But this shift in manning does not mean the Air Force is doing more with less, General Jumper said.

“We’ve got better budgets over the last three years than we’ve had in many years. …” he said. “We’ve got airplane parts, and we’ve got mission-capable rates in our airplanes higher than what they’ve been for years. Why? Because we’ve had money to buy the parts for the first time in years and years.

“We’ve had pay raises and bonuses that have continued in unprecedented levels that Congress continues to vote for us,” he said. “We’re not doing more with less; we are doing more with the same amount of people -- particularly when you talk about trying to sustain two wars.”

It all comes down to proper use of Airmen and letting them know they are valued, the general said.

General Jumper said he wants Airmen to know that “we appreciate their service, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep people who want to stay in the service.” (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)