SFA Warfighter Talk w/ Brig Gen David Yates

 

 

 “One of the original goals of the Personnel Management Act was that very thing—to be able to attract folks in industry and academia that have a deep space expertise, and to give them a path to service in this Space Force, whether that’s full-time or if that’s part-time…So skill, and it’s not one or the other, it’s not space or Intel or cyber, it’s all of those things, because in the space mission set, we found that they’re all interrelated and critical pieces of knowledge that that any space operations Guardian will have to have.”

 

“So, a Guardian develops an initial operational skill set through their training, their operational tour, and then at that point, they’ll have the decision to go full-time or part-time. Would they go part-time if they have a personal situation that that makes sense for? Great. But they might also because they’re looking to explore industry. What we’re hoping then is that that will come back to the Space Force. So, we want to offer them an ability to leverage the skills they have in their part-time work role and keep serving, but also to bring that skill back.”

 

 

 “The plan we offered to Congress was that we would offer space professionals in the Air Force Reserve the opportunity to volunteer to transfer into the Space Force. In addition, we identified what is, what we call the Space Footprint, or the portfolio of billets in units where we have those space professionals supporting Space Force today from the Air Force Reserve, decrementing those issues from the Air Force Reserve and moving them over to the Space Force so as a way to see the full-time members that might come over from the reserve.”

 

“So, through the Personnel Management Act, we created about 300 new positions, and I’m happy to say we’ve had over 300 actually apply for those positions. From the receipt, I think 330 or so will meet that first review board around last week. So, it’s a great problem to have, and we’re prioritizing the members that are in that affected space portfolio, whose billets will transition…to make sure that if they’re interested in transfer to the Space Force, that there’s a path to service for them.”

 

“We want [the space professionals] to move. If they would like to stay in the reserve and retrain; or take the skill set they have–if it’s something like intelligence, where you could do that under the space portfolio or the arrow portfolio—and find them a new position. So, that that will work for some people as well.”

 

“Once they decide to transfer, then we start all the behind the scenes, personnel actions to mentor on the back end. So, on the order of months to make sure that we’ve done the process properly, judiciously, selected the right folks for the right reasons, and then make initial notifications and start doing the assignment matching with our enterprise talent, meeting members actually transition and sworn in as guardians. Depending on a few processes, the officers have to scroll into the Space Force.”

 

 

“We’re laying the foundation for what that will look like, and it’s very exciting to explore the permutations. So, Guardians will have the ability to have a little bit of control over their career path to maybe go from a full-time position into a part-time position. For the Space Force, as they transition to part-time or back to full-time, to be able to leverage what that Guardian has to offer to the best of the Space Force ability. It’s really nice…What’s the optimal way to use all Guardians, no matter what work role they just happen to be in right now, and focus less on: well, what do we do with someone who’s a part time?”

 

“So, the vision we have is that the transition between full-time or part-time is as easy as taking an assignment. The way that the Personnel Management Act is structured is that all Guardians that are participating are actively serving status together, they’re not opponents…so that, in itself, lends itself to faster more dynamic, more deliberate decisions of what’s the best way for a Guardian to serve, what’s the best participation schedule for them, and what’s the best utility of that Guardian.”

 

“So, for example, right now, if you’re in the reserve component, it is very difficult to take a position in the active service to do things like a squadron command or authority on a staff. It’s just hard to do. It’s not impossible. You can switch components, but, but there are challenges. We won’t have those difficulties. So, any Guardian at any point in their career, whether or not they happen to be full-time or part-time at the moment, if they want to take a position, it’s going to go to the most qualified Guardian. If you need to be part-time for a while, and then you see an opportunity that you want to take, and that’s full-time? That’s not a problem. If you’re full-time and you need to go part-time and see an opportunity you need to take, that’s not a problem. Of course, there are limits, you know, there are strengths and access to work. Through like any service does, but, but that’s the vision.”

 

 “And then the other thing is that because they’re work roles and not a status, so no one is identified as a full-timer, or as a part-timer might transition, you know, back and forth. We need to look at their career progression and their career development. So, Space Force will have the luxury of first starting with its requirements. What do we need to do to be an effective fighting force, but then looking at what do our Guardians need?”

 

“Everyone in the Space Force is inherently operational. So, all the military guardians, as well as the civilian guardians, have an operational focus in space operations or cyber operations or intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance operations. Because of that focus and because of the changing threat in the space domain, the Space Force needed a more singular command and control structure for all its guardians. The problem set of the Space Force is different than the problem set of the Air Force and the Army. So, the Personnel Management Act allows the Space Force to have that unity of command, and by doing so, reducing bureaucracy, synchronizing and harmonizing training and culture for all Guardians.”

 

“So, this is a chance for the Space Force, and really the Department of Defense, to take a look at what kind of change we could implement rapidly, and leveraging the fact that the Space Force is still building its culture, its organization—this was the perfect time to take this leap and to see how that works…But it’s a great model, perhaps, for the Department of Defense in the future to look at, right as we look at change and other services and other circumstances, it’ll be a little less scary to figure out how to do that, whether we’re talking policy or human capital management systems, or even just, you know, fundamentally, how Americans serve.”