Special duty airmen: Shorter tours will help maintain family balance, career edge

There's no "one size fits all" solution. A crew afloat needs time to develop skills before going on operational deployment...often supporting shore-side elements whose missions have their own minimums for achieving measurable results. It may sound "harsh", but my thoughts are that we "choose our rates...and choose our fates". Reducing tour lengths for personnel in supporting roles, to include Special Duty Airmen, probably makes sense for them...but could possibly present difficulties for other branches or services.

Lt Col Charlie Brown I Have No Idea about the Other Services but I do Know that Navy Unaccompanied Tours used to be a Year. That is awhile to be away. The First time a Year on Adak. It was Just Me but 1 Year on Dodge (Diego Garcia) was Problematic being I had a Family by Then.

I think shorter tours are not the answer. When you look at the cost benefit analysis of this issue, it's cheaper to keep someone and their families in one place longer. When I was on active duty, I wouldn't mind a 4 to 5 year tour vice 3 or less. This way, you build continuity across the force (all services) unless there's a need of that particular service. It's also much cheaper on the military as a whole to be moving people all over the world.