ARLINGTON, Va. — With just six months left to reduce the number of personnel to Congressionally authorized levels, the Air Force has once again slashed its list of jobs that are eligible for re-enlistment bonuses.
Instead of 62 Air Force Specialty Codes, there will now be just 32 that qualify for a Selective Re-enlistment Bonus, according to the recently issued SRB list.
The increases or AFSC additions to the new SRB list became effective March 23.
But if they act fast, airmen who were counting on getting the bonuses in the 2004 list can still get that money, even though their bonus is reduced or specialty eliminated in the new list.
That’s because the cuts and reductions don’t take effect until April 23, according to Master Sgt. Gregory Little, NCOIC of accessions/retention bonus program.
Thirty career fields on the 2004 list have been removed from the 2005 list, he said, and one new career field — 1W0X1, or weather specialist — has been added.
One career field, 1A0X1, in-flight refueling, has had its bonuses reduced, Little said.
Air Force personnel officials use the SRB as a “force shaping” tool, basing the list on current and projected manning levels, re-enlistment trends, career-field force structure changes and input from individual career-field managers, according to Little.
In January 2004, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper announced that the service had until Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, to bring the Air Force back to its authorized end strength of 359,000.
To reduce the size of the Air Force by the necessary 16,000 airmen, personnel officials have since been used a number of programs, including the SRB list.
The 2004 SRB list released by the Air Force last March reduced the number of AFSCs eligible for extra cash from 146 to 62.
Thanks in part to its aggressive management of reenlistment bonuses, the Air Force is now “on target to meet end strength by the end of fiscal 2005,” Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, the service’s deputy chief of staff for personnel told the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee on personnel on March 16.
Reducing the SRB list not only helps with force shaping, it will also save the Air Force $132 million, Brady said.SRBs are authorized in 0.5 “multiples,” and in three re-enlistment zones for people with between 17 months and 14 years of service.
Eligible airmen receive half the bonus up front, and the rest in installments that are paid on the anniversary of the airman’s enlistment date.
The Air Force’s re-enlistment bonuses are capped at $60,000. But most airmen get significantly less than the maximum — in 2004, the average bonus was $10,700, Little said.
For the complete 2005 SRB list, go to www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/enlskills/Reenlistments/reenlistments.htm.
