The Air Force Monday announced a cutback of 429 positions at Joint Base San Antonio. The reductions are part of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s orders a year ago for a 20% reduction in management across the Department of Defense by the year 2019.
U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Erika Yepsen at the Pentagon said the jobs are being eliminated from the Air Education and Training Command at JBSA-Randolph.
"The majority of them, about 300, will come off before the end of this fiscal year, September 30, and the rest will come off shortly after," Yepsen said. "We don't have a timeline for those, though."
Yepsen said the cuts are a combination of civilian and military positions, all from upper management, that are being combined across the Air Force. She said the AETC will continue its mission in San Antonio.
As part of the reorganization plan, the Air Force is adding an installation and mission support center, with a workforce of about 350 positions. Yepsen said the center is equivalent to the Army’s IMCOM (Installation Management Command) in San Antonio, but said the Pentagon has not determined where it will locate the new Air Force management center.
"We're too far away from a decision on where the installation and mission support center will go to really say there's a potential for a net gain of jobs anywhere at this point," Yepsen said. "There will be 350 new positions created as a result of that, and those are positions to which some of these positions that are going to be removed -- those individuals affected could apply for those positions. Where those are going to be at this point, it's too far out to say."
Yepsen said the Air Force is trimming more than 3,400 management jobs across the service for a savings of $1.6 billion over five years.
Positions are being combined in the Pentagon's downsizing of top echelon brass in all branches of the military. Hagel last year said cutbacks will apply to the secretary's office, as well as those of the joint chiefs of staff and Pentagon headquarters, and command headquarters around the country.
