Murray: Air Force faces challenges

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Matt Miller
  • Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  The service's top enlisted leader assured a group of more than 200 people here Dec. 8, that Air Force officials are working hard to overcome challenges in readiness and manning levels.

"Our family readiness is absolutely a direct component of our military readiness ... our ability to fight and win our nation's wars," said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Gerald R. Murray. He addressed active-duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian airmen attending the 2003 Family Support Center Readiness Conference.

He emphasized the need to tell airmen and their families about the challenges facing the Air Force.

"We're challenged today with a force structure that's not right," the chief said. "We're not sized right, and we don't have airmen in the jobs and skills that we need them in today."

There is plan scheduled to run through 2008 that is going to increase the number of security forces specialists, which is one of the most "stressed" career fields, he said. As a result, one of every nine airmen entering the service is going into security forces.

Retraining current airmen and career job reservations will help put the right people where they are needed most, he said. CJRs have not meant anything in the re-enlistment process since 1999.”

"This (fiscal) year we will turn CJRs back on," Murray said.

An additional 1,400 airmen retrained into shortage career fields, he said. "We're about to announce the second year of retraining with another 1,400.

"As busy as we are, we have 16,600 airmen more than what we are funded to be able to have in our Air Force," Murray said. Trimming the number of airmen in some career fields while increasing the number in others is "one of the great challenges we will face (in the next couple years)."

Despite the challenges, the chief sounded positive.

"If you look at our pay, our benefits and the quality of life from which we measure, there's no time in the history of the Air Force that an airman has made the money or had the benefits than (that he or she does) for their service today," he said. "The targeted pay raise that will come out in January will again raise ... pay by hundreds of dollars a month for some of our airmen.

"The good news is that these are the issues Air Staff is working through," he said, "and we'll continue to fight for ... quality of life and benefits." (Courtesy of Air Force Personnel Center News Service)