Operational tempo and personnel numbers remain the two biggest problems facing Air Force Special Operations Command, said CMSgt. Bill Turner, AFSOC command chief. “There is no relief in sight for ops temp,” said Turner Monday during AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington, D.C. Although Iraq is drawing down, air commandos will remain actively involved in Afghanistan and other parts of the world. The challenge will be getting more trained airmen on the ground to relieve the ops tempo on commandos who have deployed significantly over the last 10 years. The goal, he said, is getting the ops tempo away from one-to-one.
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.