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WASHINGTON — Air Force officials today released the fiscal year 2012 mid-year selective re-enlistment bonus list along with some changes to the program.
In addition to a rebalance in overall payments, the Air Force identified 53 Air Force specialties, down from 78, to receive bonuses.
Based on the semiannual program review that began in March, officials published the latest list, which includes Airmen in special operations, explosive ordnance disposal, tactical air control party, cryptological language analysts, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, to name a few.
Deleted bonuses will take effect Aug. 18.
The Air Force also reduced overall payments across most career fields and enlistment zones, and eliminated bonuses for Zone E re-enlistees or those in the 18 to 20 year range.
While the Air Force remains at a 17-year high in overall retention, the bonus list is indicative of stressed or undermanned career fields within the Air Force.
“We are facing the realities of high retention in many areas of the force, and government-wide budget deficits,” said Lt. Gen. Darrel D. Jones, deputy chief of staff for Manpower, Personnel, and Services at headquarters U.S. Air Force. “These are difficult decisions — we need to be good managers of the most valuable resource in the Air Force, and that’s our dedicated Airmen. But
we also need to be responsible stewards for the American taxpayer,
and that means living within the budget.”
Jones said that is what these SRB changes reflect.
Lt. Col. Robert Romer, the acting force management division chief for the Air Force, said the criteria used to determine to which career fields the Air Force would pay bonuses includes current and projected manning levels, career field retention and re-enlistment trends, career field force structure changes, and career field stress indicators.
Even though SRB multiples have decreased for many career fields that remain on the list, Romer said Airmen may still be able to get a bonus that approaches the $90,000 maximum allowed by law by reenlisting for a longer term.
“For our most critical Air Force specialty codes that have been offered bonuses with a multiple of seven that maxed out at $90,000 for a four-year re-enlistment, we reset the multiple so the average re-enlistee could still reach the max bonus with a six-year re-enlistment.”
Airmen will have 30 days from today to re-enlist under the current bonus offerings.
Due to the continued budget trend, FY13 SRB multiples are projected to be consistent with the mid-year changes. The Air Force will release FY13 bonus offerings in October.
The newly released bonus list can be found at http://mypers.af.mil.
More information is available at local military personnel flights.
(Courtesy of Armed Forces News Service)
