Retirement Change? Needs Military Perspective

As CMSAF James Roy visits with airmen throughout the world, the No. 1 question he gets asked is whether retirement benefits are going to change. Though, he reiterated that everything truly is on the table as the Pentagon works to trim down its budget, he also said service leaders are committed to protecting airmen and their families. That said, personnel costs have risen 65 percent over the last 30 years even though the Air Force’s end strength has dropped by more than 45 percent. “There is something going on that we need to address,” said Roy during his address at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Wednesday. “What got people stirred up is the Defense Business Board panel that was put together and designed this retirement system,” he said. Airmen looked at that concept and assumed that’s how it was going to be implemented. “Personnel compensation is certainly an area that we need to address. The idea is that some military advice ought to be given as well,” he said. “We can’t simply take a business case off the shelf and apply it to the United States military.”