The Air Force on Nov. 19 has begun notifiedying hundreds of officers airmenthat they will be separated under a reduction in force.
Senior raters on Wednesday began are personally notifyieding captains and majors airmen who met the RIF board -- one of several involuntary force management programs enacted over the last year to reduce the Air Force's ranks -- on Wednesday, Air Force spokeswoman Rose Richeson said in an email.
The RIF board considered about 2,330 officers in October, according to a chart provided by the Air Force on Nov. 4. That chart, which contained data as of Oct. 14, also said that the Air Force expected to separate 355 officers airmen through the RIF. Richeson said the final numbers have changed slightly since then.
By press time, the Air Force had not released The Air Force plans to publish final statistics on how many airmen were retained and separated through the RIF process once notifications are complete, Richeson said.
But the RIF process has left some airmen frustrated.with a sour taste in their mouth.
"There is no respect and no transparency," said one officer who found out he had been RIFed Nov. 19. "The PSDM [memo governing the RIF process] states that commanders should make every effort to deliver the news face to face. I have had fellow service members notified that their results were in a pile of letters on the desk in front of their commander's office. One pile was people retained, one was people not retained."
The officer said he was told in person that he was not retained.
The officer also said he and other officers facing a RIF had to hunt on the Air Force's MyPers site to find the memo detailing how separations would work.
RIFed officers must leave no later than April 30. AFPC will update their mandatory separation date on or about Nov. 24, according to the memo governing RIFs. An officer who wishes to separate earlier must submit a memo, endorsed by his unit commander, to his military personnel section asking for an earlier date no later than Dec. 12.
RIFed officers who are deployed, but are scheduled to return after Jan. 1, have the option of cutting their deployment short and returning home by Jan. 1, in which case they would separate no later than April 30. Their other option is to complete some or all of their current deployment and return home after Jan. 1, as long as their deployed commander agrees. Those airmen who remain on deployment will have to separate between 30 days and four months of their return date, and must leave no later than Nov. 30, 2015. They also must separate before they complete 18 years of total active federal military service
Deployed officers who are RIFed and scheduled to return on or earlier than Jan. 1 will separate no later than April 30, like other RIFed officers.
RIFed officers must make sure they take all their terminal leave and permissive TDY before their effective separation date, the memo said.
RIFed officers will receive full involuntary separation pay, as long as they agree to serve in the Individual Ready Reserve for three years. Those who decide not to serve in the IRR will not be eligible for involuntary separation pay, will forfeit any Transitional Assistance Management benefits, and will have to repay any unearned portions of bonuses they received.
Officers who agree to serve in the IRR for three years will not have to repay any portion of unearned bonuses, and any recoupment of unearned transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to their family members will be waived.
An officer who is RIFed, and later selected for promotion, has 10 duty days to ask for his separation to be withdrawn.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
