Air Force Bars Leaving During War

By ANNE GEARAN, AP - June 99

WASHINGTON (AP) - Air Force pilots, ground crews, air traffic controllers and others central to the NATO bombing campaign in the Balkans must stay in the military for now, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The ban on departures and retirements takes effect June 15 and potentially affects about 120,000 active duty Air Force officers and enlisted people, or about 40 percent of the entire service. It does not affect Navy, Marine Corps or Army forces also connected to airstrikes on the forces of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.  The ban, called ``stop loss,'' reflects the fact that the Air Force is doing the ``heavy lifting'' of the campaign, now in its ninth week, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.  ``This is a major-theater war for the Air Force, not for the service as a whole, but certainly for the Air Force,'' Bacon said.  Between a quarter and a third of front-line Air Force fighter planes are already involved, along with a large number of Air Force support planes, Bacon said.

The other services are contributing some planes and forces, but the vast majority of the 717 U.S. aircraft now flying over Yugoslavia belong to the Air Force.   The Air Force is also calling up far more reservists than the other military branches, and stop-loss will affect some reserve units, too.

Those covered by the ban may not retire or leave the service for civilian jobs until the Yugoslav airstrikes end or until President Clinton lifts the order. Reservists may not leave units likely to join the campaign.

Some 6,000 people who had already gotten approval to leave before the end of the year must now stay on.  Nearly all pilots and navigators are affected, along with specialists in computer and photo analysis, weather, rescue missions, life support and dozens of other areas.  The Air Force has been struggling for years to retain skilled pilots and others whose training costs millions but who can typically make far better salaries in the private sector.  ``There isn't any secret ... we don't have all the pilots we would like right now,'' Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Wald said at a briefing for reporters.

Commercial airlines will be most affected by a halt in the flow of trained pilots, mechanics and others, Air Force officials acknowledged.

Although Bacon called the move ``standard procedure,'' the stop loss ban has only been used one other time, when President Bush invoked it during the Persian Gulf War.

The Air Force has had the authority to impose the ban since late April, when the Pentagon announced that as many as 33,102 reservists may be called to active duty because of the Balkan campaign.  Of those, some 25,000 would be Air Force.

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