CommunityEditor
11-12-2009, 09:37 PM
Wounded airmen who re-enlist are eligible for re-up bonuses, according to a top personnel officer.
Maj. Gen. Darrell Jones underscored the policy after the question of eligibility came up in the case of Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro, a Joint Terminal Attack Controller severely burned four years ago in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
Del Toro, 34, has said he wants to re-enlist and become a JTAC instructor. He is worried, though, that the Air Force won’t pay him the $90,000 re-enlistment bonus offered to airmen in his Air Force Specialty Code — Tactical Air Control Party — because he is unlikely to be able to deploy again.
Jones, director of force management policy for the deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel at Air Force headquarters, would not discuss Del Toro but talked generally about the policy.
“When you re-enlist, we calculate that bonus and if you re-enlist with limited assignment status and we’re utilizing you in that career field that has [a] bonus, then you’re re-enlisted and you’re eligible for that selective re-enlistment bonus,” Jones said in a telephone interview from his Pentagon office. “If we retain you in that career field in limited assignment status, you’re in that career field.”
If a wounded airman who wants to re-enlist can’t return to his AFSC, the Air Force will help him pick a new career field, Jones said.
“Our goal ... is to keep these wounded warriors in uniform if that’s what they want to do,” he said. “And our second goal, once they decide they want to stay in uniform, is to keep them in their career field; and third, if we can’t keep them in their career field, is to find them a career field that matches with their talents.”
Airmen wounded in combat get the time they need to recover, Jones said. When ready, they must go through the medical evaluation board process, which can deem them fit for duty, fit for duty but with assignment limitations or unfit for duty, Jones said.
Until two years ago, only wounded warriors with more than 15 years of service found to be unfit for duty could apply for limited assignment status. Today, the option is available to all wounded warriors, Jones said. Del Toro has about a dozen years of service.
Typically, airmen on the limited assignment status are assigned to places where they have access to sophisticated medical care, which could include deployment to large bases overseas, Jones said.
About 580 airmen take part in the Air Force’s Wounded Warrior Program, Jones said.
Of those, about 120 are still on active duty recovering, going through the medical evaluation board process, or waiting to be separated or retired from the service.
Sixteen have returned to duty and another five have assignment limitations, Jones said.
“We really look at our care for wounded warriors as a solemn obligation,” he said. “We hope we have gone to the appropriate lengths to ensure whenever someone’s injured ... that we take care of them.”
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/11/airforce_bonuses_wounded_111209w/
Maj. Gen. Darrell Jones underscored the policy after the question of eligibility came up in the case of Tech. Sgt. Israel Del Toro, a Joint Terminal Attack Controller severely burned four years ago in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan.
Del Toro, 34, has said he wants to re-enlist and become a JTAC instructor. He is worried, though, that the Air Force won’t pay him the $90,000 re-enlistment bonus offered to airmen in his Air Force Specialty Code — Tactical Air Control Party — because he is unlikely to be able to deploy again.
Jones, director of force management policy for the deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel at Air Force headquarters, would not discuss Del Toro but talked generally about the policy.
“When you re-enlist, we calculate that bonus and if you re-enlist with limited assignment status and we’re utilizing you in that career field that has [a] bonus, then you’re re-enlisted and you’re eligible for that selective re-enlistment bonus,” Jones said in a telephone interview from his Pentagon office. “If we retain you in that career field in limited assignment status, you’re in that career field.”
If a wounded airman who wants to re-enlist can’t return to his AFSC, the Air Force will help him pick a new career field, Jones said.
“Our goal ... is to keep these wounded warriors in uniform if that’s what they want to do,” he said. “And our second goal, once they decide they want to stay in uniform, is to keep them in their career field; and third, if we can’t keep them in their career field, is to find them a career field that matches with their talents.”
Airmen wounded in combat get the time they need to recover, Jones said. When ready, they must go through the medical evaluation board process, which can deem them fit for duty, fit for duty but with assignment limitations or unfit for duty, Jones said.
Until two years ago, only wounded warriors with more than 15 years of service found to be unfit for duty could apply for limited assignment status. Today, the option is available to all wounded warriors, Jones said. Del Toro has about a dozen years of service.
Typically, airmen on the limited assignment status are assigned to places where they have access to sophisticated medical care, which could include deployment to large bases overseas, Jones said.
About 580 airmen take part in the Air Force’s Wounded Warrior Program, Jones said.
Of those, about 120 are still on active duty recovering, going through the medical evaluation board process, or waiting to be separated or retired from the service.
Sixteen have returned to duty and another five have assignment limitations, Jones said.
“We really look at our care for wounded warriors as a solemn obligation,” he said. “We hope we have gone to the appropriate lengths to ensure whenever someone’s injured ... that we take care of them.”
Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/11/airforce_bonuses_wounded_111209w/