Air Force gives new mom three years off

Cpl Jeff Neely I understand that many don't like the program but she does not get half her pay she gets 1/15th of her pay now saying is that to much well maybe it is and that is something that I may agree with you about. But your not put out the right information, read the article.
"Under the program, airmen will enter the Individual Ready Reserve, and continue to receive their usual medical and dental coverage. They also receive a small stipend of 1/15th of their usual monthly basic pay. The Air Force will pay to move an airman from his or her duty station to any location in the U.S., and then move the airman to his or her follow-on base at the end of the program. They will be required to check in with the CIP's program manager once a month."

So Cpl Jeff Neely do you have a reply to me or are you just mad at me for wanting you to put out the correct information.

As long as she fulfills her obligation and doesn't weasel out of it later great. God I wish I could have taken a REAL 2yr. hiatus. I would have finished my BS and probably came back an officer. Well, hind sight is 20/15 after all. I am not making excuses, I just got moved around and deployed a lot and most of the time there was no good way to boost your over-all education in combat units. Yeah, there are jobs out there that will give you some time like recruiters, or ROTC. I just never got those assignments. N/A now anyway. This appears also to be a possible cost saving measure. Think about it, you invest a lot of time and money into making a pilot, a reactor tech or a SF operator, you don't want to lose them so you throw them this bone.
As to it being FAIR, my first wife was in the Army and she only got 90 days before she had to get back to it. My gut reaction was this new policy is bullshit, but times change. Face it folks, they had two lesbians get married on the steps of West Point, what are you going to do? The military is constantly morphing and is dependent on the whims of the politicos. I am just glad I got the hell out in 2007.

Way for this site to throw her under the bus, and toss the AF under it with her.

Wow. Did anybody actually read the article? They will receive a stipend of 1/15th of their monthly basic pay so if they get $5000/month that means a little over $300/month. And her length of committment lengthened. It also said that 70% of people in the program are going to be attending school and only 30% caring for a family member. Life is long. 3 years is actually very short period of time in a working career and she said if not for this program, she probably would have left the Air Force and now she is going to do her 20 and probably come back very motiviated.

My main issue with this whole scheme is that, after 3 years out of service, she will have to be completely retrained at great cost to the military which is already pinching pennies. In this ever changing world, technologically speaking, she will be so far behind the curve when she returns, she will have to start over in training.

A refresher course will be much cheaper then training a new solider an officer at that. Besides like the 1LT said when she comes back she will be motivated and want to be in the service. Nothing is more effective then a service member who wants to be in.

Yes, she will be motivated........either to be in the Air Force or stay home with her children. That is a chance the Air Force is going to have to take.

It is a service offered incentive. You don't think that if the service was on the losing end, the program would be gone tomorrow . The pilot is 40 per branch. Hardly a bank breaker.

SPC Holmes, you could take 2yrs if you applied and were selected. I attached the Army link earlier in the thread. This is not an everybody program. It is 40 slots Army wide.

LTC Jason Mackay . When you start adding up all of the training costs sunk into some of these folks coupled with the reality some will find a way never to come back also their billet will need to be filled in some way the price tag is millions. I know the DoD wastes a lot of money so millions doesn't seem like a lot. With the reality of supply and demand for people, reduced budgets and the like it is an unnecessary spend of taxpayers money.

Jeff that is the beauty of this. You have sunk resources into a person, their MOS is over strength, two year groups behind is under. You have an off ramp and avoid spending more when you defer what you have. If the MOS is under strength, you can deny the application. The taxpayers money isn't really being spent when they are on this program. The health benefits will ensure their physical readiness when they return. The 1/15th pay, a few hundred bucks, covers their checking in pay. It is a pittance that no one could live off of. If they don't come back, they owe Uncle Sam, and he'll get it back. That ADSO is no joke either, getting more out of the break than if you just forced them out. We can go round and round on this. I suspect no reasoning would meet your scrutiny .