Air Force Print News : PCS policy could extend officer assignments to four years

Defense AT&L, March-April, 2007 by C. Todd Lopez

WASHINGTON -- Some officers could now spend as many as four years at a duty station before getting a new assignment.

Air Force officials are looking for ways to reduce the number of permanent change-of-station moves for officers, particularly for those in the United States.

By extending the average assignment length for an officer from three years to four years, Air Force officials believe they can reduce the number of yearly officer PCS moves. Any moves occurring before four years would primarily be for professional development reasons only, said Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel.

"We don't necessarily want to move people around as quickly as we may have in the past, if there is not a developmental reason for that," he said. "And there is a lot of development that can take place in your first few years of service, wherever you are."

The general said that for many young officers, lieutenants in particular, the greatest professional development comes from gaining expertise and experience at one stable location. For higher-ranking officers, professional development comes from attending schools or by taking a command position. Real professional development, the general said, does not come from simply moving to a new assignment.

"We have always been a force that wanted to develop people, and part of developing people is to give them different opportunities," he said. "But if you are not careful, you can confuse movement with development. So what we are looking at are policies that might create moves that are not necessarily related to development."

Brady also said fewer moves for officers will put less stress on their families by allowing children to stay in a single school for a longer time and by allowing spouses to find more stable careers.

While the change to PCS policy mostly will affect officers inside the continental United States, it also will affect officers stationed overseas, especially at those assigned to European bases.

"We find that some of our traditional overseas assignments ... are perhaps as stable as [in the Continental United States], and so it begs the question as to whether or not you really need to have that disparity in how you manage units," he said.

Manning overseas units at higher levels increases PCS moves and the costs associated with them. Air Force officials now will be more amenable to extending officers who want to stay longer at an overseas tour and will look closer than they have in the past at officers who want to shorten their overseas tours, Brady said.

Air Force officials have other reasons for limiting the number of officer PCS moves. One of those reasons is recouping the cost of the moves and applying that funding in other places.

"We have budgetary issues in a lot of areas: fighting the global war on terror, high ops tempo, aging aircraft fleets, and growing manpower costs," the general said.

Brady said more effective management of officer moves will better help their professional development, and also will free up funding so it can be applied to winning the war on terrorism and to recapitalizing aging Air Force aircraft.

Lopez is with Air Force Print News.

Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez, USAF