HASC hearing, Mar 8 2000

[Guest guest]

Statements made by Maj. Gen. Sherrard III, Chief of Air Force Reserve

before the HASC Mil. Pers. Subcommittee, Mar 8, 2000 concerning

retention. Sounds good, but we all know there is more to it than what is

being said.

Retention

While we continue to meet our overall command retention

goal of 82%, the

strong economy has had a significant impact on our ability to retain

personnel—particularly in critical skills. The robust economy will

undoubtedly continue

to challenge us in attracting and retaining the skilled professionals

we need, so we must

find new ways to strengthen our retention rates, particularly for

full-time pilots and first

term enlisted personnel. While overall officer retention rates are

healthy, the current

pilot retention rates do not reflect the projected escalating attrition

rates that will

challenge all Air Force components. Historically, pilots stayed until

retirement, but

recent indicators reveal an increase in the number of Air Reserve

Technician pilots who

are leaving early. As with the active component, increased hiring by

major airlines, high

OPTEMPO and perceptions of better civilian pay and working conditions

are the

reasons for leaving. The USAFR predicts a pilot shortfall of 419 by FY

2002. A

Rated Management Task Force has been formed to study this issue and

develop a

Total Force approach to solve it. We hope that some of the pay

incentives, as well as

other initiatives, will help us solve this problem. Some other

initiatives include

improvements in scheduling predictability that the EAF should provide,

an increased use

of telecommuting to better manage ancillary training requirements,

protection of current

benefits and increased parity of benefits.

These initiatives should have an equally positive effect on

retention of our first

term airmen. Our retention rate in this category slipped somewhat this

past year,

probably due to OPTEMPO concerns. We believe our plan to relieve some

of the

turbulence associated with OPTEMPO should turn the trend upward. In

the future, we

will continue to focus on achieving an equitable parity of pay and

benefits, as well as

some other important initiatives.

In sum, the matter of recruiting and retention is the issue

of greatest concern to

me, and we are taking positive steps to fix this situation as I lead

the Air Force Reserve

into this new millenium.