Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.)—chair of the House Armed Services Projection Forces Subcommittee—asked last week how aging tankers showing signs of heavy wear and tear can make it through depot maintenance so much faster these days. The answer is simple: The depots used commercial process improvements, cutting flow days in half over the past five years, said Lt. Gen. Don Wetekam, the Air Staff’s logistics chief. In effect, he said, depots are doing twice the work per day. Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffmann, the Air Force’s military acquisition deputy, offered the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center explanation: “The hospital and the hospital staff are getting better and better all the time, but the patients still come in sicker and sicker.” Bartlett conceded that was a good analogy.
Now Enlisted Airmen Can Stay in Uniform Longer
Dec. 8, 2023
The Air Force is extending the amount of time Airmen can spend at most enlisted ranks by two years, as the service looks to combat sluggish recruiting and balance its force structure. The High Year of Tenure (HYT) program sets limits on how long service members can spend in each grade…