AF works to demobilize Guard, Reserve

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. A.J. Bosker
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The Air Force is working to return the nearly 28,000 mobilized Guard and Reserve airmen to their families and civilian jobs as quickly as possible, according to the service’s senior manpower official.

“There are a full range of initiatives that we’re undertaking to accomplish the mission without mobilized Air Reserve Component airmen,” said Michael L. Dominguez, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs at the Pentagon.

“Our goal is to return them to their citizen-airmen status and let them go back home to their families and their civilian careers,” Dominguez said.

However, the demobilization of these airmen, 10,000 being security forces, is driven by workload, as determined by the combatant commanders in the field.

“The Air Force is a force provider to these combatant commanders,” Dominguez explained. “The major challenge facing these commanders in the global war on terrorism is to be able to accurately determine what their future requirements will be.”

Besides defining future requirements, the combatant commanders need the capabilities the Guard and Reserve can provide, he said.

“There are dozens of expeditionary bases in the theater and a significant number of soldiers and Marines who rely on the airlift capabilities provided by the Guard and Reserve,” he said.

In spite of this, Dominguez and other senior leaders are watching the situation closely.

“As soon as our manpower requirements are defined, the Air and Space Expeditionary Force Center at Langley Air Force Base, Va., will decide the best way to source these requirements, and we can bring our people home,” said Dominguez.

Although these Guard and Reserve airmen were called up for a two-year mobilization, Dominguez said he believes the Air Force should rely on them only as long as absolutely necessary.

“The Air Force couldn’t have done what it has over the past two years without these airmen, but we must remember that we share them with their families, employers and communities,” he said. “We have to get them back home as soon as the mission permits.”

Dominguez dismissed the rumor that the service is planning to transfer capabilities out of the Reserve components and into the active-duty force.

“We find ourselves in a war against terrorism that may last decades,” he said. “Our Guard and Reserve airmen will continue to be full and valued members of the total force throughout the conflict and into the future.”

Air Force officials rely on the participation of the Guard and Reserve as volunteers in virtually every aspect of daily operations, he said. They want them flying airlift, aerial refueling, combat air patrols, and running intelligence and space operations.

“The challenge isn’t moving forces from the Guard or Reserve (onto) active duty; it’s really finding better ways to support ARC airmen volunteering for duty,” he said. “We want to encourage and reward them for volunteering by finding policies and developing practices to enable them to do so.”

Dominguez said he sees full participation in the future but without involuntary mobilization of forces.

“We need to develop a way for our citizen airmen to be total-force participants without having to rely on the Cold War involuntary-mobilization tool,” he explained.

Although mobilizing the nation’s entire armed forces to wage a final battle against the Soviets made sense during the Cold War, it is out of line with today’s realities, he said.

“That’s not the fight we’re in anymore,” Dominguez said. “We’re in a fight where we may need someone tomorrow and then not need them for another three weeks. … This can’t be done with involuntary mobilization. We need to develop a way to allow the Guard and Reserve airmen to participate when needed and then return to their citizen-airmen status just as quickly.”

These changes will not devalue Guard and Reserve airmen and the capabilities they bring to the fight; they will be just the opposite, he said.

“The Air Force recognizes the value, knowledge, expertise and skill embedded in our ARC airmen and how important they are to winning the global war on terrorism and meeting our 21st-century requirements,” he said.