Is Blended Retirement Making a Difference?

Tobias Switzer, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security’s Military, Veterans, and Society Program (and also an Air Force officer), said he worries that the Air Force will not be able to respond fast enough if retention suddenly changes.

“One of the problems is waiting until retention hits rock bottom, when there’s a mass exodus of service members. Then it’s kind of too late to attempt to turn the dial back on,” he said. “It’s not like an on/off switch. … And waiting until people start exiting, it kind of can be too late to then start trying to dial up continuation pay rates and offer them earlier. So I see that as potentially a tool that the services have not fully exploited to use for retention purposes.”

Indeed, given USAF’s history of asking Congress to increase the aviation bonus cap for pilots, it’s curious that the service has thus far chosen not to use the continuation pay tool to its full effect.

Read the full story and more from Air & Space Forces Magazine.