Private Military Landlord Pleads Guilty, Must Pay $65 Million for Defrauding Air Force, Other Services

Dec. 23, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Balfour Beatty Communities, one of the largest providers of privatized military housing in the U.S., has pleaded guilty to defrauding the Air Force, Army, and Navy, the Justice Department announced Dec. 23.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Balfour Beatty Communities has agreed to pay $65 million—$33.6 million in criminal fines and over $31.8 million in restitution—as a result of a federal investigation into its scheme to obtain performance bonuses by submitting false information to the military.

BBC will also be under probation and engage an independent compliance monitor for the next three years as part of the deal.

“The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is committed to protecting the integrity of the Department of the Air Force’s procurement process,” Special Agent Paul Wachsmuth, director of AFOSI’s Office of Procurement Fraud Investigations, said in a statement. “The extensive and dedicated collaborative efforts between AFOSI, the Air Force Audit Agency, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Department of Justice in this investigation was paramount in ensuring the safety and well-being of our warfighters and their families.”

News of Balfour Beatty Communities’ issues were first reported in 2019. At the time, Air Force leaders noted “unacceptable” conditions at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and the 20 other USAF installations where Balfour Beatty had communities. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the company’s homes did not meet fire safety codes and had mold, rodents, pests, radon gas, and other defects.

Soon after, a Reuters and CBS News investigation detailed how Balfour Beatty Communities maintained two sets of maintenance records at some bases—one detailing issues of mold, asbestos, and leaks that were not promptly fixed; and another set of falsified accounts of quick repairs that allowed the company to collect bonuses from the Pentagon.

On Dec. 23, the Justice Department confirmed that “BBC employees altered or manipulated data in property management software and destroyed and falsified resident comment cards to falsely inflate … metrics and, ultimately, to fraudulently induce the service branches to pay performance incentive fees which BBC had not earned.”

The media reports were followed by a Congressional hearing where lawmakers grilled a Balfour Beatty Communities official, who promised to refund the performance bonuses if the Air Force investigation substantiated the report of fraud.

Just over a month after that hearing, federal agents searched the office of BBC at Tinker. Shortly after that, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the service secretaries signed the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Tenant Bill of Rights, aimed at protecting service members and families in private military housing.

A Balfour Beatty official testified to Congress in March 2021 the company undertook “a significant reorganization,” firing employees and improving its training after the scandal, and that it was on track to meet the requirements in that Tenant Bill of Rights.

Two former Balfour Beatty managers previously pleaded guilty to fraud for their roles in the scandal: Rick Cunefare, who directly supervised Balfour Beatty’s community managers overseeing day-to-day operations for the company’s housing at Lackland, Travis, Vandenberg, Tinker, and Fairchild Air Force Bases; and Stacy M. Cabrera, a community manager at Lackland.

2,000 Airmen, Guardians are Denied COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Exemptions

Dec. 22, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force and Space Force commands have turned down more than 2,000 requests for religious accommodations to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate while approving none, the Department of the Air Force announced Dec. 22.

Airmen and Guardians whose religious accommodation requests are denied by their major command or field command can appeal the decision to the Surgeon General of the Air Force. But so far, no appeals have been successful—DAF has turned down 135, approving none.

Those whose appeals are denied may separate or retire, if able. After that, those who still refuse the vaccine “will be subject to the initiation of administrative discharge.”

While 2,130 requests have been denied, there are still 8,636 Airmen and Guardians across the Active-duty, Reserve and Guard who still have religious accommodation requests pending with their MAJCOM or FLDCOM, as well as 152 pending with the Surgeon General. But “based on the number of disapproved accommodation requests at this point,” service members are “encouraged to consider that operational requirements could result in requests for religious accommodations being denied,” the Air Force said in a statement.

According to Department of the Air Force Instruction 52-201, a Religious Resolution Team of commanders, chaplain corps personnel, medical providers, judge advocates, and other subject-matter experts work to evaluate religious accommodation requests before making a recommendation to the commander. As part of that process, a chaplain conducts an interview with the person seeking the exemption.

DAFI 52-201 contains a checklist for chaplains to consult as part of that interview, asking chaplains to evaluate whether the person’s beliefs “seemed honestly, consistently, and sincerely held” based on five factors:

Requestor is credible (consistently keeps tenets, practices, etc.).
Requestor’s demeanor and pattern of conduct are consistent with the request.
Requestor participates in activities associated with the belief(s).
Other persons supporting the claim are credible.
Request is supported by letter(s) of verification or endorsement from an organization espousing the beliefs, which are the basis for the claim.

The checklist also calls for the chaplain to discuss “alternate means of accommodating the practice” and to decide if the requestor “identified the substantial burden” of the Air Force rule that he or she feels infringes upon religious freedom.

However, the interview with the chaplain isn’t the only factor in determining whether to grant a request.

“Although the chaplain may advise the member’s belief is sincere, MAJCOM and FLDCOM commanders have to balance that member’s interests against the overall impact on operational readiness, health and safety of members and good order and discipline within the unit,” Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones said in a statement.

According to a memo signed by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, service members whose religious exemption requests are denied at the MAJCOM/FLDCOM level have five days to exercise one of three options:

Start the COVID-19 vaccination process.
File an appeal with the Air Force Surgeon General.
Request to separate or retire, “if able, based upon the absence of or a limited Military Service Obligation.”

If an appeal is denied, the five-day clock restarts. Under the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, those booted from service solely for refusing the vaccine will be discharged under honorable or general under honorable conditions.

The Air Force previously confirmed that it had discharged 27 service members for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, though none of those members had sought a religious or medical exemption.

On Dec. 21, DAF released its latest data showing that 95.7 percent of Airmen and Guardians are at least partially vaccinated. Another 2,000 or so individuals have medical exemptions, and roughly 2,200 have administrative exemptions. Yet that still leaves around 17,000 service members who are unvaccinated, either seeking an exemption, having verbally refused the vaccine, or are erroneously coded.

The Air Force has already stated that those who are unvaccinated without an approved exemption will not be allowed to PCS to a new assignment. And Kendall has raised the possibility that unvaccinated Airmen will not be able to deploy either.

As Uniform Shortage Looms, Some BMT Grads Go With Fewer Service Dress Items

Dec. 22, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Supply chain shortages are affecting availability of the Air Force’s service dress uniforms, leading the department to announce Dec. 21 that it has started temporarily issuing fewer uniform items to certain graduates of basic military training.

Typically, men and women are issued two long-sleeved and two short-sleeved blue shirts at BMT. Men also receive three pairs of trousers, and women get two pairs of slacks. Since November, though, amid a fabric shortage, some graduates have received only one long-sleeved shirt, one short-sleeved shirt, and one pair of either trousers or slacks, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed.

BMT graduates will be granted a cash allowance in their paychecks so that they can eventually buy a full uniform set from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service.

But it’s not just BMT graduates who could be affected in the coming months by the uniform shortage. The Department of the Air Force said in a statement that the current fabric shortage “will also affect the supply of service dress items” for the entire department.

The Defense Logistics Agency said in a statement that Burlington Industries, the sole U.S. supplier of approved worsted and poly-wool dress fabric used in all military services’ dress uniforms, is experiencing shortages caused by “labor challenges and increased material cost.”

As a result, the DLA is expecting “a greater impact on the production and availability of dress uniforms starting in the third quarter of fiscal year 2022”—around April 2022.

“DLA Troop Support’s Clothing and Textiles supply chain is in close communication with Burlington to match fabric production with stock levels to best maintain the flow of fabric and mitigate uniform backorders where possible,” the agency said in a statement.

The Clothing and Textiles supply chain agency is also “in the process of resoliciting Burlington’s contracts,” the statement said.

The Air Force isn’t the first service to experience uniform shortages of late. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coast Guard faced a shortage of operational dress uniforms resulting from outbreaks of the virus at manufacturing hubs in Puerto Rico. Supply shortages for both the USCG’s ‘Bravo’ jacket and dress pants lingered into mid-2021.

Massive supply chain issues have hit across the globe, spurred by a variety of factors including the pandemic and affecting everything from computer chips to Christmas lights.

As the calendar flips to 2022, though, uniform changes are already front of mind for some in the Department of the Air Force, as the Space Force looks to start wear-testing its new dress uniform, a prototype of which was unveiled in September.

Milley Speaks With Russian Counterpart as Blinken Calls for Dialogue About Ukraine

Dec. 22, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley spoke with his Russian counterpart Dec. 22 amid border tensions with Ukraine and mounting concerns of a Russian invasion in January. The call followed comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that high-level dialogue with Russia is sought “relatively early in the new year.”

“We’re engaged in diplomacy and deterrence at the same time,” Blinken said in a Dec. 21 press briefing in which the top diplomat repeated a threat of “massive consequences” if Russia further invades Ukraine.

Nations on NATO’s eastern flank, from the Baltics to the Black Sea, have called for additional troop rotations and capabilities to deter a Russian invasion, while Ukraine has specifically called for new air defense systems. Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said Dec. 20 that an American air defense team recently returned from Ukraine but that the Biden administration has made no decision to grant new defense assistance to Ukraine.

Blinken said he’s pursuing avenues for a potential dialogue with Russia in January, including the via the existing Strategic Stability Dialogue; the now defunct NATO-Russia Council, which Russia backed out of in October; and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors compliance of the Minsk agreement in the disputed Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine.

The Secretary of State redoubled a promise made by President Joe Biden and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan of “very meaningful and massive response” by the United States and its allies “if Russia commits renewed acts of aggressions” but promised no further deterrence measures, such as military movements along the eastern flank of NATO.

Notwithstanding, Blinken admitted that intelligence suggests Russia is poised for an invasion.

“We’ve seen plans that Russia has to commit renewed acts of aggression against Ukraine that it could implement on very short order,” Blinken said.

A Ukrainian defense official declined to comment on Blinken’s remarks but told Air Force Magazine Dec. 22: “Having Russia as [a] neighbor, we are always concerned.”

A readout of the call between Milley and Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov said the two leaders discussed “regional security-related issues of concern … to ensure risk reduction and operational de-confliction.” The statement from Joint Staff Spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said that, consistent with their past phone calls, the two leaders agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.

Kirby said in a press gaggle Dec. 21 that Russian de-escalation was a matter for the State Department to address but that the presence of 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders is still a source of regional instability.

“We still believe that there’s time and space for diplomacy and discussion to achieve a result that does not increase the instability or [violate] the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Kirby said in the official transcript.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III planned, as part of his holiday phone calls Dec. 22, to speak with members of the Florida Army National Guard’s 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team now conducting joint training in western Ukraine.

Ukraine has called for a pathway to NATO entry, something Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared is a red line for Russia. Putin has also worked to discourage military assistance to Ukraine and warned against a buildup on NATO’s eastern flank.

“We continue to see a significant force presence near and around the Ukraine border. It continues to be concerning,” Kirby added. “We still don’t know the full intent here. And there’s no indication that President Putin has made a decision one way or another.”

MacDill Picked as the Next KC-46 Base

Dec. 22, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force selected MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., as its next preferred location for the KC-46 on Dec. 21, setting up the Florida installation to receive 24 of the new aerial tankers in the coming years.

The KC-46 will replace Active-duty KC-135s currently at MacDill with the 6th Air Refueling Wing, the Air Force said in a statement.

“This basing action and the KC-46A Pegasus coming to MacDill is representative of the commitment to air refueling and airpower and what this does for our country,” Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson, 6th ARW commander, said at an event celebrating the announcement. “ … So to be able to do this for decades to come, it shows the importance of that refueling capability and what it means for our nation and our nation’s defense. And it means that it’s going to be happening right here from MacDill Air Force Base, by these Airmen and by the Airmen and service members and civilians that follow us. … We are excited for this big news at MacDill.”

MacDill’s selection comes over Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., the other candidate location announced by the Air Force in May. A final basing decision is still forthcoming, dependent on the results of an environmental impact analysis, which is expected to be completed in the fall of 2023. Fairchild, tabbed as a “reasonable alternative” to MacDill, will also undergo an environmental impact analysis.

“The KC-46 mission factors that [the Pentagon] considered are central to what our partners do every day,” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), whose congressional district includes MacDill, said at the announcement event, adding that she was “thrilled.”

“They were looking at the capacity of MacDill. They were looking at environmental issues, and they were looking at support from the community—how do we support our military families,” Castor said.

The Air Force’s decision was also hailed by Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), who represents the neighboring district and joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers who sent a letter to the Air Force in June promoting MacDill’s candidacy.

“MacDill is the right choice for the KC-46’s new operating base,” Franklin said in a statement. “It is home to 33 mission partner units from all branches of service, including U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, making it an ideal setting for these aircraft.”

Pending the final basing decision, MacDill will be the sixth main operating base for the KC-46. The Air Force currently fields Active-duty KC-46s at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; Reserve KC-46s at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; and Air National Guard KC-46s at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H.. Travis Air Force Base, Calif., has also been selected to receive the tanker in the coming years.

Fairchild, meanwhile, is still home to the Air Force’s only super tanking wing, with four KC-135 squadrons and 63 total aircraft. In statements, however, lawmakers from Washington made their displeasure with the KC-46 decision clear.

“I am incredibly disappointed with this decision, as the Air Force has once again chosen to overlook the clear capacity, location, and personnel advantages that make Fairchild the absolute best location for Main Operating Base Six,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement. “Let’s not mince words, the Air Force has made the wrong choice with regard to stationing our next generation of refueling tankers—and I want to know how this decision was reached.”

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) added, “I am disappointed to hear that Fairchild Air Force Base was not selected to be the next home of the KC-46 tanker fleet. While this is not the news we were hoping for, I have no doubt that Fairchild will continue to serve as a center of excellence for the KC-135 fleet and play a critical role in refueling missions.”

New Data Indicates Declining AFCENT Airpower Demand

Dec. 21, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Pentagon released previously withheld statistics Dec. 17 indicating changing demand for airpower in Afghanistan as the U.S. prepared to withdraw from that country last spring. U.S. Air Forces Central (AFCENT) withheld the data for the months February 2020 through November 2021 “due to sensitivity surrounding the implementation of the U.S.-Taliban agreement,” said Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby ahead of the data release.

Data for the Iraq and Syria campaign during the same period show steady demand for airpower, with 2021 sorties for airlift and airdrops; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance holding steady, while demand for supplies and passengers increased. Tanker and strike sorties, however, were down from 2020, furthering a downward trend since 2019.

Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III directed the release by AFCENT, which provided two slides showing data for 2014-2021. Earlier data is available on AFCENT’s website and goes back to 2012.

The new data shows airstrikes in Afghanistan ramped up quickly in the fall of 2020, with the number of weapons released increasing from 56 in September 2020 to 246 in October. Weapons released remained over 100 through April before beginning a steady decline to 18 in July, before the U.S. pullout in August. After expending 153 that month, airstrikes ceased.

Kirby did not interpret the trends but said the department is committed to providing regular summaries again. AFCENT, Air Mobility Command, and Air Combat Command did not immediately provide context on the data.

Declining Air Strikes

Numbers of sorties by manned strike aircraft fell steadily in both Afghanistan and Iraq/Syria from 2016 to 2021 with a notable drop in actual strikes—sorties with at least one weapon released—in Afghanistan in the last three years.

Manned strike sorties flown in Iraq/Syria actually started out more than five times higher than in Afghanistan in 2016 (21,181 compared to 5,162), but the sorties fell steadily in both missions since then, with Iraq/Syria’s dropping by two-thirds to 7,059 in 2021; and Afghanistan’s dropping by more than half to 2,596.

However, manned strikes did tick up in Afghanistan for a time.

Strikes by manned aircraft more than doubled in Afghanistan from 2018 to 2019, from 966 to 2,434; then dropped by three-quarters in 2020, to 660; then again by nearly half in 2021, to 372. Nevertheless, such strikes in Afghanistan still far outpaced those in Iraq/Syria during the same three-year period.

Manned sorties with at least one weapon released	Iraq & Syria	Afghanistan
2016	11,825	615
2017	9,944	1,248
2018	1,591	966
2019	976	2,434
2020	255	660
2021	116	372

Source: AFCENT

The Air Force’s slides do not report numbers of strikes by remotely piloted aircraft, nor how many RPA sorties were flown, instead providing totals of weapons released by both manned and remotely piloted aircraft. The slides don’t make clear how many weapons were fired by RPA versus how many were fired by manned aircraft.

Nevertheless, a trend in strikes can be discerned, with the Afghanistan campaign outpacing the Iraq/Syria effort in total weapons released from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, 7,423 weapons were fired in Afghanistan, compared to 4,729 in Iraq/Syria. In 2020, total weapons fired in Afghanistan numbered 1,631 compared to 1,188 in Iraq/Syria. The following year, in 2021, total weapons fired in Afghanistan amounted to 801 compared to 554 in Iraq/Syria.

ISR missions in Afghanistan outpaced the Iraq/Syria campaign from 2016 to 2020 then dropped dramatically from 14,834 in 2020 to 4,814 in 2021. ISR missions in Iraq/Syria remained consistently around 13,000 from 2019 through 2021.

AMC Efforts Split between Two Theaters Until 2021

From 2016 to 2021, Afghanistan received the most airlift and airdrop sorties, airlift cargo, and airlift passengers between the two theaters in all but two cases—airlift cargo in 2016; and airlift and airdrop sorties in 2021—while Iraq/Syria led in tanker sorties, fuel offloaded, and aircraft refuelings in all six years.

In the Iraq/Syria campaign, tanker sorties began to decline in 2017, from 13,243 to just 2,716 in 2021. More drastically, aircraft refuelings dropped from 80,912 in 2016 to 13,137 in 2021.

The Afghanistan noncombat evacuation operation in August 2021 likely contributed to that country outpacing the Iraq/Syria campaign in both airlift cargo and airlift passengers despite reporting fewer months.

Space Force Launches Website Aimed at Potential Recruits, Public Education

Dec. 21, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

A new Space Force website aimed at recruiting the next generation of Guardians and educating the public on the new service’s mission launched Dec. 20, the service’s second birthday.

SpaceForce.com, like AirForce.com, details the core missions and career fields of the new service. It also includes a video of the Space Force’s recruiting commercial, “Origins,” which emphasizes the importance of the space domain and the need for a military branch dedicated to it; and links to the Space Force’s recruiting-specific social media profiles, @gospaceforce on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA4jBiwXArM

Visitors to the website can also survey details on the requirements and application process for enlisted service members, officers, and civilians. The site includes overviews of each career field, complete with qualifications needed, training, and tasks associated with each.

Including these details was crucial, Air Force Recruiting Service director of strategic marketing Barry Dickey said in an interview, because of how many Space Force recruits will interact with the site.

“I think probably 100 percent of recruits will have visited the SpaceForce.com website at some point. When you fill out an application, unless you walk into a recruiter’s office and fill out an application, this is where we get the majority of them,” Dickey said.

So far, the Space Force has had no trouble attracting interest from recruits. Thousands of Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines applied to transfer to the new service, and the Air Force Recruiting Service met its goals in fiscal 2021 of about 400 enlisted Guardians and roughly three dozen officers from the civilian population.

Those goals are increasing in fiscal 2022, to 521 enlisted Guardians and about 70 officers. Yet the Space Force is expected to be the nation’s smallest military service by a long shot—so that means SpaceForce.com isn’t just about trying to attract as many recruits as possible.

“When the Space Force stood up, we knew in speaking with [Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond], we knew that our No. 1 job as marketing and advertising was really not to generate leads, which sounds kind of counterintuitive, but our No. 1 job was to expand the knowledge of the population about Space Force and its mission and to build the brand of Space Force,” Dickey said.

“So even if we don’t get the amount of … leads who sign up and fill out an application, what we’ll get is visitors to the site that might be influencers and business leaders and anyone who’s interested in the Space Force and what it does—and who can then go out and hopefully take the message from the website and go out and kind of be our recruiters.”

To that end, the website addresses some basic questions other services might not have to address, such as “What’s the difference between Space Force and NASA?” and “What is the Space Force’s mission?”

At different points, AirForce.com receives roughly 2 million visitors per month. The goal is for SpaceForce.com to build up to those kinds of numbers, Dickey said.

To help it get to that goal, the Air Force Recruiting Service marketing team will look to add features to the site in the coming months, such as “online gaming, virtual interaction, probably some chat functionality, more and more content about the Space Force as that branch of the service grows, and probably a lot more personal experiences with Guardians that are out there that are willing to share their experience with recruits,” Dickey said, similar to AirForce.com’s “Ask an Airman” section.

Plans for SpaceForce.com were first discussed almost as soon as the new service stood up in December 2019. But due to delays caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts on the new site really ramped up about six months ago, Dickey said, with a strong push by the Air Force Recruiting Service and its marketing firm.

Biden Tells Pentagon to Ready 1,000 Troops to Help With COVID-19 Surge

Dec. 21, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

President Joe Biden is directing Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to ready 1,000 more troops to deploy to hospitals as needed in January and February as the White House looks to battle rising COVID-19 case counts credited to the omicron variant.

Biden’s announcement, previewed in a White House fact sheet ahead of a Dec. 21 speech, indicated that the service members put on standby to deploy will be “military doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel” but did not specify from which branches or units they would come.

“We’ve already started moving military medical teams. They’ve already landed in Wisconsin and Indiana this week,” Biden said in his speech. “This is on top of 300 federal medical personnel that are on the ground, having deployed since we learned about Omicron.”

The military’s involvement in the federal government’s public-facing response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been somewhat limited since June, when the last federally supported vaccine center staffed by U.S. military personnel closed. Prior to that, service members at 48 sites nationwide administered about 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, the Pentagon said, with National Guard sites administering another 12 million.

Over the past several months, much of the Pentagon’s COVID-19 efforts have centered on its own vaccine mandate, with more than 1.5 million troops getting fully vaccinated. The Air Force, Space Force, Navy, Army, and Marine Corps all instituted deadlines for Active-duty troops that have now passed, and several services have already booted service members for refusing the vaccine and disobeying a lawful order.

Meanwhile, medical professionals have warned that the omicron variant could drive a surge in hospitalizations, and Biden’s action Dec. 21 is aimed at preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed by new patients.

Mirroring nationwide trends, the Department of the Air Force has also seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases as of late. The most recent data, released Dec. 21, showed 587 new cases in the prior seven days among military personnel, the department’s biggest jump in new cases since mid-September.

The Air Force’s most recent data did show a slight downward trend in the number of Airmen and Guardians who are unvaccinated, going from 22,065 who have either refused the vaccine, obtained a medical or administrative exemption, or are seeking an exemption to 21,587.

The number of pending requests for religious exemption, however, continues to stay above 10,000. Air Force policy calls for the service to rule on religious exemption requests from Airmen and Guardians inside the continental U.S. within 30 business days, but that policy was written before the pandemic, when the Air Force received just a “handful” of requests every year, Air Force spokesperson Rose Riley told Air Force Magazine.

Now, with thousands of personnel requesting them, there is a backlog. When the Nov. 2 deadline passed for Active-duty Airmen and Guardians to get the vaccine, 4,933 were recorded as seeking religious exemptions. Seven weeks later, that number had dropped only to 4,652; and about 6,000 requests from the Guard and Reserve components had joined the pile.

As of Dec. 21, the Department of the Air Force did not have servicewide data on how many religious accommodation requests had been denied or withdrawn since the Nov. 2 deadline; nor how many, if any, new ones had been made. The department did not have an estimate for how long it might take to sort through every request, Riley said.

Not a single religious accommodation had been granted by the DAF as of Dec. 21, and the department would not speculate on whether that would ever change, Riley said, adding that it continues to evaluate every request on its own merits.

Adm. Christopher W. Grady Sworn in as Vice Chairman of Joint Chiefs

Dec. 20, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Pentagon confirmed Dec. 20 that Adm. Christopher W. Grady was sworn in as the 12th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs’ office confirmed that the ceremony with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III happened at about 1 p.m.

The swearing-in fills a monthlong vacancy following the retirement of Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, whose last day was Nov. 19. The Senate confirmed Grady on Dec. 16 after his nomination testimony Dec. 8.

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said that among Grady’s duties will be leading the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and serving as a senior member of the Nuclear Weapons Council.

Grady leaves his position as commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command/U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command since 2018. In that role, he oversaw the naval leg of the nuclear triad.

In the Navy, Grady also championed the development and institutionalization of “Ready Relevant Learning,” part of the Navy’s modernization doctrine.

In his 11 months in office, Austin has attempted to redouble the department’s efforts to make China the “pacing challenge” of the U.S. military. The Secretary has already visited the Indo-Pacific three times, with another trip planned in January.

At his confirmation hearing, Grady was asked to address one aspect of China’s military growth—its rapid nuclear buildup.

“I think that China’s breakout is, as [U.S. Strategic Command] Adm. [Charles A.] Richard has called it, is, indeed, spectacular and, indeed, breathtaking,” Grady said, calling for deterrence against both China and nuclear-armed Russia. “Modernization of the nuclear triad will be the underpinning of that deterrence effort against two nuclear competitors.”