Moseley: Use Airmen for what they do best

  • Published
  • By Kent Miller
  • Air Force Times
WASHINGTON, D.C. --  The Air Force chief of staff said he intends to resist requests for airmen to fill Army and Marine Corps jobs when those assignments fall far outside the airmen's core competencies.

Gen. T. Michael Moseley also said that while he understands the Pentagon plan to divert $800 million each from the Air Force's and Navy's fourth-quarter personnel accounts, that money must be returned by the middle of the summer.

Although the Air Force is continuing to draw down the force, with the current goal of reaching 316,000 active-duty personnel by the end of 2009, requests for airmen to do jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan that would ordinarily be performed by soldiers and Marines continues unabated.

More than 20,000 airmen have been assigned to these so-called "in lieu of" jobs outside their specialties, Moseley said April 24 at a meeting with defense reporters.

Too many are filling jobs for which they are not qualified and that take them away from their Air Force jobs, where they could be more effective, he said.

For example, many airmen have been assigned to Camp Bucca, Iraq, where they guard detainees.

"We don't guard prisoners [in the Air Force]," Moseley said. "We don't even have prisons. ... So to take our people and make them a detainee [guard] requires 'X' amount of time away from their normal job, and then 'X' amount of time deployed and then 'X' amount of time getting them back."

It's not the best use of their time or their skills, Moseley argued, adding that he rejects the term "in lieu of" because "that presupposes that United States airmen have nothing to do other than sit around waiting for someone to give them something to do in lieu of what they're doing."

If airmen can contribute in a meaningful way to the effort on the ground with the competencies they have, Moseley will continue to offer his strong support, he said.

"Some of our logistics and transportation people are certainly capable of driving," he said. "The way we deploy, inside our Air Expeditionary Force template, we know where everyone is, so if you ask me where are the drivers in the Air Force ... within minutes or an hour, I can tell you where every driver is. ... The other services don't necessarily have that capability, so when it comes time in the theater to ask for drivers, it is fast for the Air Force to be able to respond, and we've done that."

During a visit to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, the previous week, Moseley was told by Col. Richard Ayres, commander of the 17th Training Wing, that 15 to 20 percent of his personnel were deployed.

"And that's a training center," Moseley said.

Across the Air Force, about 25 percent of the personnel in each wing are deployed, although the wings continue normal operations.

Adding to the frustration, he said, is the too-frequent misuse of personnel because events on the ground can change so quickly.

Once a request for tasking is received, it takes time to train, equip and deploy an airman to the theater. Often, the situation -- and the needs -- on the ground have changed.

"Those are the things that are very frustrating, and those are things I've drawn red lines on," he said.

"We live in a joint world. We live in a military that's at war, and we are in a situation where, if we can contribute, sign me up for that," he said. "But I am less supportive of [assignments] outside our competencies."

Because of the inability of Congress and President Bush to agree on the wartime supplemental appropriations bill, the Pentagon decided to shift money from Air Force and Navy military personnel accounts to the Army, but the total of $1.6 billion owed to the two services must be repaid by the fourth quarter, Moseley said.

Congress has insisted on including a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, but the president has consistently vowed to veto it.

How the dispute will be resolved -- and how long that will take -- is not clear, but any shortfall in the Air Force personnel account would affect airmen's pay, permanent change-of-station moves and the expenses of people in transit, among other things.

"You have to pay people every day when they come to work," he said. "I don't want to have any concerns about getting that money back. It would be a breach of faith to take MilPers money out of a service and then fast-forward a couple of quarters and then just say, 'Eat it.'" 

(reprinted with permission from Air Force Times)