Air Force Reserve Command has declared up front that the just-signed 2008 defense appropriations bill will only fund an end strength of 67,500 Reservists. What the AFRC release doesn’t say is that’s the number that the Administration requested in its 2008 budget submission. AFRC decided early on that it would participate in the Air Force’s personnel drawdown to help fund modernization efforts. The Air National Guard, so far, has said no to cutting airmen; instead it’s looking elsewhere for savings. The active Air Force is still working toward a total drawdown of some 40,000 full-time equivalents, taking the last 17,000 or so over 2008 and 2009. AFRC plans to cut around 7,400 to get down to the 67,500 mark.
The Pentagon fulfilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's promise to slash the number of Religious Affiliation Codes used by the military to track the volume of members adhering to different religions and to shape the chaplain corps to support them. The change reduces the number of religions counted for such purposes…