Review: Air Force botched officer separations

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Review: Air Force botched officer separations
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 15, 2008 5:48:59 EDT

The Air Force bungled the separation of officers during the drawdown, paying some officers to walk away from their active-duty service commitments while preventing other officers — who did not owe more time — from opting out, according to an Air Force Audit Agency review.

But the service’s personnel directorate defended the practice of separating officers on a first-come, first-serve basis, saying it’s sometimes necessary to provide quick decisions to officers making difficult career choices.

Dozens of officers were paid to leave in 2007, even though they owed several years of service after graduating from flight school or the Air Force Institute of Technology.

The report cited the case of a pilot who fulfilled only half of a 10-year service obligation before deciding to quit. Although the service spent at least $400,000 training the pilot, it not only let him walk away, but paid him $75,000 in voluntary separation pay to do so, according to the report.

In another case, a research scientist took $60,000 in VSP to leave the Air Force even though the officer had more than four years remaining on his education commitment after graduating from AFIT.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/08/airforce_officer_forceshaping_081408/