USAF -- more or less

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. James Wilkinson
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  If one thought makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up it is losing half of my staff while, at the same time, my workload doubles.

The shockwaves of losing 40,000 Airmen are being felt across the Air Force, and many more are heading our way - and Airmen, like myself, are often discouraged by the thought.

A recent discussion over the phone with my uncle helped put things into perspective.
I was telling him about the trying times we are facing in the Air Force today when he cut me off mid-sentence and said, "Jimmy, this is nothing new. You're just too young to remember military downsizing in the past."

After we finished our talk, I decided to check the specifics for myself and discovered that it was true - we, as a military, have been here before - many times.

For example, at the end of fiscal year 1987, the military was at its post-Vietnam peak of 2,174,217 positions, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office's 1993 report to the Senate concerning military downsizing.

In 1991, the National Defense Authorization Act called for a fiscal year 1995 end strength of 1,613,000 positions - a 25-percent reduction, or 561,000 positions less than the fiscal year 1987 end-strength level, according to the report.

When comparing this to the Air Force's 40,000 cuts, it doesn't seem too bad. We have braved budget and personnel cuts in the past - all while maintaining the best air and space force in the world.

The point I'm trying to make here is that military downsizing is a fact of life for us. So the next time you grow concerned about budget or personnel cuts, just think about the plights of our predecessors who successfully soared through such turbulent times into calm skies.

I am confident we will do the same!