It's too easy to find parking

  • Published
  • By Don Branum
  • Academy Spirit staff writer
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Most mornings, you're going to have an interesting time finding a parking spot near Harmon Hall unless you have a reserved space. That's not the case anymore.

The first Friday after sequestration furloughs took effect, parking spaces were too easy to find. It's a symbolic reminder that offices around the Air Force Academy -- and every other military installation in the Defense Department -- are not 100-percent manned and won't be until the end of September.

I imagine parking is easy to find on Mondays, too, but Monday's my furlough day. Now, as long as I can still pay my bills and have money left over, I'm not going to complain about a three-day weekend. On the other hand, trying to turn in stories before deadline is a bit more challenging now, with me gone Mondays and a good chance anyone I need to contact is out Fridays.

How else will furloughs affect the base's mission? Here's a laundry list of what we know so far:

Fire department staffing is reduced to critical level of service, which is defined as "the absolute minimum level of service ... only permitted for short durations" in Air Force Instruction 32-2001, "Fire Emergency Services Program." A total of 81 civilian firefighters will be furloughed. Available water for fires and operational capacity for some rescue types will be reduced, along with fire prevention inspections and public education events.

Most offices at the Academy Clinic will be about 90-percent staffed, though the 10th Dental Squadron will be minimally staffed Fridays.

The 306th Flying Training Group will reduce its flying hours by 10 percent over the summer and 11 percent during the academic year. Nearly 60 civilians will be furloughed, and four vacant positions will be left unfilled.

The annual march to and from Jacks Valley for the second phase of Basic Cadet Training, typically done on weekends, will take place during the workweek. As a result, Second BCT will be two days shorter than normal. Fewer hot meals will be available in Jacks Valley; basic cadets will have box lunches or meals ready to eat instead. Cadet cadre will be diverted from their primary roles to serve meals. Many Operation Air Force experiences lasted 16 days instead of three weeks due to furloughs.

Academically, civilian instructors, who make up more than a third of the overall faculty, will have 20 percent less time to prepare their courses or to help cadets with coursework.

The Prep School will eliminate the Ropes Course and one of two physical fitness test sessions. In addition, no overnight away athletic contests will take place.

Mitchell Hall will feel a squeeze as well. Staff Tower events will be strictly limited, and requests for off-site catering will be referred to the Falcon Club, which is a non-appropriated fund activity. All meals during the summer session will be served buffet-style instead of table by table, increasing the time it will take for cadets to be fed.

Almost anything involving customer support will involve longer waits. The Military Personnel Section will close an hour earlier than normal on Fridays, and the Civilian Personnel Office will be closed all day Fridays.

Those are some of the immediate effects on the Academy's mission. But what about the impact on the Academy a year from now, or five years from now?

Our leaders here -- Superintendent Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, 10th Air Base Wing Commander Col. Stacey Hawkins and others -- are certainly doing the best they can with what they have. But there are no easy decisions: the furlough, Hawkins said, "means a reduction in workforce productivity and mission capability, and we will have to adjust to those changes."

Acting Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III are thinking about it, though. They've stood down combat flying units, reduced weapon system and installation support and canceled almost all non-deployment travel. Those are going to have much broader long-term effects.

It also comes with personal costs.

"This action obviously inflicts personal and financial hardships on our civilian Airmen and their families," Hawkins said. "As General Welsh said, furlough is not the way to reward our dedicated civilian workforce for their service. It is regrettable this is happening to the outstanding civilian workforce at the Air Force Academy."

What happens to the people who now can't get 100 percent of their jobs done in 80 percent of the time? What happens to the people who now have to figure out how they're going to pay 100 percent of their bills with 80 percent of their paychecks? And what happens to the people in uniform who now have to figure out, given the manpower shortfalls, what their units will have to do without?

I don't know the answers to these questions. I just know that it's too easy to find parking on Fridays.