Base braces for civilian furloughs

Selected offices at Mountain Home Air Force Base will close or provide limited services Fridays through the end of the fiscal year as the base copes with federally-mandated budget cuts.

Starting Monday, selected government employees at the base will face furloughs, requiring them to take 11 days of non-paid leave related to sequestration through Sept. 30.

In March, the automatic federal cuts, known as sequestration, took affect. It forced the Defense Department to cut roughly half a trillion dollars in spending over the next 10 years.

As part of those cuts, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel concluded that would require the military to furlough its civilian employee work force. Hagel directed most Defense Department employees to take 11 furlough days, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30.

"We never wanted this to happen, and we hope Congress will be able to release more funds to end furloughs as soon as possible," said Col. Byron Anderson, 366th Fighter Wing vice commander. "Our civilians are absolutely essential to Mountain Home Air Force Base. These are people that love Idaho, bring years of experience, and are completely integrated across the base. They bring incredible continuity to our overall mission here."

The colonel emphasized that if the furloughs continue over the next three months, it will have an adverse effect on the base.

"More importantly, it will be a hardship for them and their families and will likely have an impact on our surrounding communities," Anderson said.

Civilian employees at the base would essentially take a 20 percent pay cut over the next three months. This is the equivalent of losing 80 jobs in the Mountain Home community.

Most of the base will furlough civilian employees on Fridays during the furlough period, with some exceptions.

Offices affected by closures and reduced services include the base housing office and wing history office, which will close Fridays through the furlough period. Meanwhile, the base commissary will close Tuesdays in addition to its standard closure every Monday.

In addition, several offices will reduce or delay services every Friday until the furloughs end. That includes the wing inspector general office as well as the base information protection office, which will not offer fingerprinting on Fridays.

People should anticipate increases in wait time at the visitor control center and sporadic closures at the 366th Security Forces Squadron reports and analysis office if military members are required to perform other base security duties on Fridays.

Base officials added that wait times at the Grand View gate could also increase since security forces will not close or reduce operating hours at the gate at this time. In addition, some security forces airmen manning the gate could be tasked elsewhere.

Approximately 420 general schedule and wage grade employees work at the base. According to 2nd Lt. Rebecca Ennis, a base spokesperson, about 30 of these government workers are exempt from the furloughs since their duties are deemed mission essential.

Those individuals include child care workers at the base daycare center, health care workers at the base hospital and contract employees with the Republic of Singapore air force training squadron.

The furloughs come just two months after the sequestration cutbacks required the Air Force to ground more than a third of its aircraft fleet. At Mountain Home Air Force Base, that required the 391st Fighter Squadron to ground all of its F-15E Strike Eagle fighters.

Currently, the 389th Fighter Squadron is continuing to fly as part of a regularly scheduled deployment to southwest Asia in support of combat operations in Afghanistan. To maintain their proficiency, aircrews at the base are conducting training in flight simulators as ground crews catch up on required maintenance on the base's fighters.

Combat certifications for pilots across the Air Force were due to expire soon, however, if they are unable to gain actual inflight training.