Air Force to Dump 1,715 Officers

(Arlington, Virginia) Call it lack of foresight or poor planning, either way the U.S. Air Force has found itself in a quandary with regard to junior officer staffing levels. There are simply too many.

From the Stars & Stripes:

Almost all active duty Air Force officers with less than three years in uniform will face a new "force shaping board" in April that will send about 1,715 officers back to civilian life with an honorable discharge and a final salute.

The officers selected for "involuntary discharge" -- 1st and 2nd lieutenants who were commissioned in 2002 and 2003 -- must depart the Air Force no later than Sept. 30, 2006, the end of the federal fiscal year, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said Friday.

The cull is necessary because overenthusiastic officer recruiting and unusually high retention rates after Sept. 11, 2001, have left the Air Force "with an imbalance of junior officers," Stephens told Stripes in a telephone interview.

Lieutenants in several career fields are exempted from the Force Shaping Board review. These include pilots, navigators, air battle managers, missile specialists, combat controllers, pararescuemen, and developmental engineers. The board is expected to notify those selected for separation by June 1, 2006.

Okay, what is going on? The mainstream media, in its constant scrutiny of the entire recruiting process, regularly remind the nation that the military is overextended and needs more people. At the same time, the Air Force is dumping over 1,700 junior officers. Once again, the media don't get the story quite right.

Companion post at Conservative Thinking.