The Air Force will continue offering some Active Duty enlisted personnel and officers opportunities for voluntary separation from the service in Fiscal 2014, announced service officials on Thursday. This will help the Air Force reduce the size of the force to the congressionally mandated end strength level and to shape the force to meet requirements, states the service’s July 18 release. The Air Force anticipates ending Fiscal 2013 “at, or marginally over, end strength,” according to the release. Congress set the Fiscal 2013 end strength at 329,460 airmen. In Fiscal 2014, the Air Force has requested a reduction of 1,860 airmen, which would result in an end strength of 327,600, states the release. For the enlisted airmen, there will be time-in-grade waivers, enlistment contract waivers, and expanded opportunities for transfer to the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserve. Officers in certain year groups and overage career fields will be eligible for time-in-grade and ADSC waivers, states the release. “We may be required to implement additional force-management measures throughout the year,” said Col. Dawn Keasley, chief of the military force policy division.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.