Military

Some AEF deployments will be longer than 3 months

07/30/02WASHINGTON -- While Air Force leaders remain committed to the current air and space expeditionary force construct of three-month deployments in a 15-month window, about 10 to 15 percent of the deployed force will be gone longer, based upon current requirements, Air Force officials said.

Extended tour lengths are becoming necessary to fill shortfalls in certain stressed career fields caused, in part, by demobilizing Reserve and Guard forces and releasing most Air Force specialties from Stop-Loss to meet end-strength requirements.

Gen. John P. Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, understands the contributions required by the total force to allow the Air Force to succeed in the war on terrorism.

"As I talk with airmen and their families around the world, I understand the stress and sacrifices our continuing high operations tempo levies on many of our people," Jumper said in a July 23 letter to airmen worldwide. "The Secretary (of the Air Force Dr. James G. Roche) and I want to express our gratitude and admiration to everyone supporting this critical effort. A grateful American public recognizes and appreciates your dedication and hard work as well."

The Air Force has begun to identify the stressed career fields that could be affected by longer tour lengths. The initial specialties include: security forces, office of special investigations, civil engineers, fire fighters, intelligence, transportation, explosive ordnance disposal, combat control, command post, fuels, liquid fuels, communications, air command and warning, air battle managers, pilots and enlisted aircrews.

Not all of the people in these stressed career fields will be deployed longer than three months, but many will, said Maj. Gen. Tim Peppe, special assistant for air and space expeditionary forces.

"We don't know the full magnitude of it yet," Peppe said. "The AEF Center is currently sourcing the requirements for AEF 5/6. We've already notified some people in AEFs 3/4 that they'd be staying for up to 179 days."

Peppe said the reaction from people who were told they wouldd be deployed longer was varied.

"I think quite frankly they would have preferred that the Air Force told them they'd be staying longer before they went," Peppe said. "Clearly, our goal is to work three-month deployments for everyone, but with standing up 14 additional expeditionary air bases, we have some work to do to make sure we have enough people in all the right career fields. There are two ongoing studies which are quantifying the help needed in numerous career fields."

Some of the work to be done to help the stressed career fields is to increase the pool of those qualified to deploy, and to seek to balance the workload and "stressors" between the respective specialties.

"Currently, we have about 175,000 positions postured in the AEF library that the AEF Center looks at on a daily basis to fill requirements," Peppe said. "That number has increased by about 3,000 in the last six weeks by having all commands and organizations identify positions and personnel who previously were not postured in the AEF library. These people are now eligible to go on an AEF deployment."

Peppe said the total force is working to fill AEF requirements.

"Of the approximately 2,000 people who currently have been identified to deploy longer than three months, some are from the Reserve or Guard who have volunteered and are a big help," Peppe said. "We shouldn't forget that the reserve component continues to pull its fair share of the requirements."