ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE – At least some airmen among the 6,500 assigned to Robins Air Force Base are a little edgy these days after hearing of Air Force plans to initiate involuntary measures to trim its active duty force.

According to an Air Force Association report this week, 1,373 officers and 4,376 enlisted will be affected Air Force wide through fiscal year 2011. The Air Force will also reduce its officer accessions by 737 and enlisted intake by 2,681 to meet an authorized and funded end strength of 332,800 by fiscal year 2012.

Voluntary measures initiated last November yielded only 80 officers and 574 enlisted by late February, and that outcome plus the highest retention rate in 15 years are forcing the more painful, required departures.

Volunteers will be allowed to leave immediately, say officials. The involuntary separations will begin this summer with departure deadlines no later than April of 2011, according to the AFA report.

The overall plan also includes measures to correct overages in certain career fields and shortages in stressed areas. Robins spokesman John Birdsong identified some of the “stressed” career fields as civil engineering, public affairs, security forces and contracting.

An Air Force Times article this week quoting Air Force Personnel Center said officers commissioned in 1998-1999 and 2002-2004 serving in nine overmanned specialties will be subject to a reduction in force board tentatively scheduled for Sept. 20.

The vulnerable, overmanned specialties, according to the Times, are space and missile, weather, aircraft maintenance, communications and information, force support, chaplains other than Catholic chaplains, behavioral science and human factors scientists, chemists and biologists and financial managers.

Officers volunteering to leave the Air Force will be eligible for separation pay twice that of the involuntary payment, the Times added. The RIF board will not be used if a sufficient number of officers volunteer to depart.

An Air Force press release this week said a separate selective early retirement board will convene July 19 to consider “colonels with four or more years in grade and lieutenant colonels deferred for promotion at least twice.” Those tapped must retire by Jan. 1, 2011.

The enlisted plan is less clear. The Air Force press release said the measures include waiving time-in-grade and service commitments for airmen in non-critical, overage specialties.

“Dates of separation roll backs will result in early release of some airmen with less than 14 years of service or more than 20 years who have declined training, failed initial training, declined retainability for an assignment or who have negative quality indicators,” the article added. The overage enlisted career fields were not identified.

In addition to reducing the accessions goals to ease some of the burden, the Air Force plans to expand transfer programs to the Air Force Reserve and to the Army.

Also, the Air Force press release pointed out the adding of more than 9,000 new civilian positions in fiscal year 2010 and an estimated 25,000 by 2013 will offer additional opportunities to airmen leaving the active duty ranks.

At this point, it is unclear how many Robins airmen will be impacted, although a growing number of civilian positions would be a transition option for those with the necessary skills. Base officials have said the civilian employee ranks will grow by almost 2,000 jobs in the near term.

“We always look to leverage the talents of airmen as they transition,” Birdsong said. “Their skills, leadership and discipline make them great candidates for a host of employment opportunities.”

He referred to the Air Force-wide civilian hiring surge planned for the next two years and said, “We will assist airmen in considering the opportunities this may present for them.”