Pope holds force shaping briefing Published Aug. 10, 2006 By Senior Airman Cassandra Locke 43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Pope held a Force Shaping briefing at the base theater Aug. 3 to discuss upcoming concerns. For fiscal year 2007, the board convened to balance career fields and reduce junior officer overages by approximately 903 in the 2003-2004 year groups. The board is scheduled for March 12 to 23 in 2007. Senior raters will provide eligible officers a copy of their retention recommendation form approximately 45 days prior to the force shaping board. Some Force Shaping tools available are the selective early retirement board, voluntary separation pay, the fiscal year 2007 Force Shaping Board, career job reservation. There are additional force shaping programs. One is the selective early retirement board. Under this, the basic eligibility are line officers, chaplains and judge advocates. Those eligible must be colonels with at least four years time in grade as of Jan. 8, 2007, and lieutenant colonels deferred twice for promotion. They are eligible if they don't have an approved voluntary retirement date, are not on a promotion list and are not scheduled for mandatory retirement in fiscal year 2007 or 2008. Another option is the voluntary separation pay program. This program offers monetary incentives for personnel to depart the service prior to retirement. Officers with more than six and no more than exactly 12 years of completed service as of their requested date of separation are eligible. Another option is to palace chase. This is transferring to the Air National Guard or Air Force Reserves. Career Job Reservations are a necessity for first-term Airmen to reenlist. Airmen who don't want a CJR in their current AFSC and don't want to retrain into another AFSC or Special Duty Assignment and get a CJR in that AFSC, can apply for palace chase, transfer to the Army, civil service and separation upon expiration of their enlistment. A current listing of constrained AFSCs, additional information and program updates can be found at the Headquarters Air Force Personnel Command Web site at ask.afpc.randolph.af.mil. Enlisted Airmen can retrain as well. Phase I allows enlisted members to retrain from overage career fields to underage career fields. If voluntary retraining targets aren't met, Phase 2 selects individuals for involuntary retraining. Within Phase 1 approximately 1,227 NCOs will be targeted, and eligible Airmen may volunteer for special duty assignments. Phase 2 will begin shortly after Phase 1 in any Air Force Specialty Code that didn't meet voluntary retraining targets. Eligible Airmen will receive notification RIPs. Another option is the blue to green program. This allows Airmen to transfer to the Army with a three-year commitment. Eligibility is for Airmen O-1 to O-3 and E-1 through E-5. Interested Airmen can visit the Office of Personnel Management Web site at ww.usajobs.opm.gov and select the "My USAJobs" tab to view a list of vacancies. Additional information is available from the Defense Applicant Assistance Office Web site at www.go-defense.com.