CMSAF addresses quality of life

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Melanie Streeter
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The service’s ranking enlisted member addressed quality-of-life issues to the House subcommittee on military construction Feb. 25.

Overall, quality of life in the Air Force has greatly improved, contributing to increased morale and retention, said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Gerald R. Murray. However, that quality of life is not the biggest contributing factor.

Full text of Chief Murray’s testimony can be found on the Air Force’s Internet home page at www.af.mil by clicking on senior leader viewpoints.

“Today (morale) is the best I’ve ever seen it,” Chief Murray said. “It is not (based on) leisure or comfort. It is ... based on commitment and dedication to a cause that is much greater than any individual, and they do believe in what they are doing.”

But there are still some areas of concern. Among them are veteran’s education benefits, infrastructure improvements, deployment schedules and the Air Force’s need to trim down its end-strength by more than 16,000.

The issue with veteran’s education benefits is fast becoming a pressing issue for those approaching retirement.

“There are 42,000 airmen who have no opportunity for veteran’s benefits,” the chief said. “The group hit the hardest are those retiring now, or who will be in the next few years who declined to enroll in the Veteran’s Assistance Education Program offered from 1977 to 1985.”

These senior noncommissioned officers served during a time of increased operations tempo, from operations Desert Storm to Iraqi Freedom.

“They now find themselves leaving military service without the opportunity to complete the college degrees that duty to their country often kept them from obtaining,” Chief Murray said.

Besides the inequity of benefits, the Air Force is facing growing deficiencies in infrastructure, Chief Murray said.

“Deteriorated airfields, hangars, waterlines and electrical networks are just some of the infrastructure elements warranting immediate attention,” he said.

Many airfields and hangars date back to the days of the Army Air Corps, said the chief. Some maintainers work in hangars where the conditions are not much better than working outside.

“It’s imperative that we address these needs and give our airmen first-class facilities to perform their jobs at peak efficiency,” he said.

With the current deployment situation, airmen are tasked to perform those jobs efficiently around the world.

“At the height of OIF, more than 40,000 of our airmen deployed to 36 locations around the world,” Chief Murray said. “Today that number totals more than 20,000, including Guard and Reserve forces and even some of our civilians.”

While the majority of airmen are organized into air expeditionary forces, deploying on a 90-day, 15-month cycle, that cycle was suspended to meet the requirements of OIF. Many airmen were deployed for indefinite amounts of time.

“We’re now returning the majority of our force back into a standard AEF rotation,” Chief Murray said.

Airmen are getting really used to deployments, with nearly two-thirds of the force having deployed, many more than once.

“I recently spoke to a 13-year technical sergeant in our Air Force,” the chief said. “In 13 years, he has deployed on 13 extended deployments. I asked him how he felt about this. He said, ‘Chief, it’s what we do.’

“It is indeed what we do today,” he said. “Because of that, I am asking for your continued support on the issues and programs important to our young men and women and their families.”

One of those issues that recently became important to airmen is the Air Force’s need to cut its end-strength by more than 16,000.

“We will now take steps to ask more than 16,000 airmen to separate voluntarily from our ranks,” Chief Murray said. “Our intent is to reach our end-strength objective without losing critical skills or separating quality, experienced airmen from our Air Force.”

The chief also touched on retention and recruiting, housing improvements and policy changes, the renewed emphasis on physical fitness, and the contributions of Guard and Reserve forces.