Starting next month, Air Force Reserve Command will begin a year-long trial of the new force support structure already instituted by active duty units. Reserve mission support squadrons and services squadrons will merge at seven locations throughout the United States for the evaluation, thereby combining their manpower and personnel functions with services, AFRC said in a release Sept. 4. “By combining [them] under one manager, we will reduce overall costs and give our people more flexibility to respond to their customers,” said Col. Joseph Vivori, AFRC’s director of manpower and personnel. The stand-alone test locations are March ARB, Calif.; NAS JRB Ft. Worth, Tex.; and Youngstown ARS, Ohio. The test locations that will receive some support from their active duty hosts are MacDill AFB, Fla.; Hill AFB, Utah; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska; and McGuire AFB, N.J. Upon completion of the trial, AFRC said it will determine how to implement force support squadrons across the entire command.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 5 to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a move that has heightened the ongoing debate over the White House’s legal authorities and the role of the military in the world and at home.
