AEF cycles to extend to six-month deployments

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Olenda Peña-Perez
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  With the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan having such high demands on combat support capability, some Air Force career fields have had to extend their rotations from the traditional 120-days, 20-month battle rhythm to 179-days to support the Global War on Terrorism. Specifically, some of the latest changes impact Civil Engineers and Contracting personnel. 

With each passing day the number of Air Force specialties requiring deviations from the 20-month battle rhythm increases in order to meet the demands imposed by the GWOT. The heightened operations tempo in the AOR area of responsibility and increase in deployed personnel impacts our home station capability, but the new changes are intended to alleviate some of this burden. As Maj. Gen. Del Eulberg, Air Force Civil Engineer states in his recent letter to the career field, "Over the past three years, civil engineers have been in a surge operations tempo that has a majority of our forces on 179-day tours, others on 120-day tours and an increasing number on 365-day tours. To meet the continuing high demand while providing commanders a measure of predictability and stability to home station missions, we sought and received approval to place all civil engineers in an alternative construct for AEF Cycle 7 beginning January 2008." 

Accordingly, Civil Engineer personnel, similar to Security Forces, will deploy in red, white and blue bundles for six months at a time over an 18-month cycle. "With the new bundles, the members will be on a 1:2 dwell cycle, meaning the member may only be at home for one year before they're deployed again for six months, and it also means that each base will have less of its capability deployed at any one time," said Capt. Gregory Mayer, 3rd Civil Engineer operations flight commander. Instead of up to 140 Airmen gone at one time, there will now only be about 85 gone at once. 

Along with our local Civil Engineers and Contracting personnel, all of our groups have personnel deploying on six-month rotations, which in some cases are longer than 179 days when advance training is required. Some of these units include the 3rd Medical Group, 3rd Operations Support Squadron, 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 3rd Logistics Readiness Squadron, 732nd Air Mobility Squadron, and the 3rd Wing Staff. 

The AEF's flexibility and adaptability enable the AF to meet the ever-changing needs of the mission. Accordingly, the AEF will not remain status quo. As Airmen we must be proactive in understanding the AEF construct and doing all we can to support the changes as they evolve.
"Supporting the war effort is our number one priority," said Col. Jim Harrold, 3rd Mission Support Group commander. "Across the Air Force, we have seen drastic growth in the number of 179-day and 365-day taskings. These have been especially pronounced for the support career fields, and I see no immediate slowdown on the horizon. Our Airmen continue to prove over and over again that they have trained and prepared well for these taskings."