Weekly Roll Call: PCS Changes

  • Published
  • By Senior Leadership
  • Pentagon
WASHINGTON, D.C. --  As an Airman (whether officer or enlisted), moving you, your family, your pets, your car and all of your household goods from one part of the world to another is very costly.

The Air Force pays for these PCS moves thousands of times each year...it really adds up. But sometimes when the Air Force does move an Airman, the cost of the move often outweighs the real advantage gained by either the Airman or the Air Force.

In an effort to save PCS dollars and to stabilize and better develop you as an Airman, new policies have been developed regarding PCS moves that will keep you in one location for a longer period of time. This can work out well for everyone. For the Air Force, these dollarssaved can be used to recapitalize our equipment, airplanes and facilities. For Airmen, this means your families can stay in the same house for a little longer, your children can finish another year at the sameschool, or your spouse can continue to work at their civilian job.

The first PCS policy change increases the time-on-station requirement needed before you can PCS from one continental United States (CONUS) assignment to another. In the past, you needed to remain at a stateside base for three years before you could PCS to another stateside base.

Now, you will need to remain on base for four years before you can get a new assignment. All enlisted Airmen are affected by this change, as are officersin support, judge advocate, chaplain and medical career fields. Also, most officers in rated staff positions are affected. Lieutenants, however, will need only three years on base in order to do a CONUS to CONUS move.

This change in policy does not affect the time on station needed to move from a stateside base to an overseas base. Airmen who get married to another Airman often seek out duty locations where they can do their Air Force job alongside their spouses. We work with these couples to help them find and secure assignments that allow them to stay together. But another change to PCS policy increases the time you'll need on station before the Air Force will pay for your move to a Joint Spouse assignment location.

Under the new PCS policy, Airmen must have 24 months on station before they can apply for a government-paid Joint Spouse PCS. This doesn't mean it's not possible to move sooner if manning permits, however, it just means the Air Force won't pay for the move before two years. If a suitable assignment is available prior to the 24 month period, and an Airman chooses to, he or she may pay their own way to move themselves. This change affects both officers and enlisted.

Another set of changes to Air Force policy are more indirect, but they still affect PCS moves in the service. These changes involve adjusting manning percentages at both overseas and stateside bases. At a base in the United States, for instance, manning for an AFSC must now be less than 85% before the Air Force will send more Airmen there. So if Base X has authorizations for 100 aircraft maintainers, it is okay for them to have only 85 maintainers assigned. Should they fall lower then 85% manning, another maintainer could PCS in --but not until then.

Similar changes will happen overseas. Because the manning numbers have been changed both overseas and stateside, the Air Force will have to fill fewer vacancies, and that means fewer PCS moves.

Finally, the Air Force has extended by 12 months the tours of Airmen in jobs coded as Assignment Availability Code 50 (AAC 50). Airmen affected by this change are now serving in special jobs where the Air Force initially set an absolute limit on how long they could serve. Those limits have now been increased by 12 months. If you don't know if this change affects you, check with your supervisor to determine if you are coded as AAC 50.

Moving you and your family less often will aid in your professional development and life stability by allowing you to stay in place and in one job longer. By the same token, the changes to the PCS policy will also help meet the budget challenges we face today.