Law increases number of man-days Reservists can serve before needing a waiver

  • Published
  • By Bo Joyner
  • Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command

A change to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act has increased the number of man-days Reserve Citizen Airmen can serve on active duty before they are required to have a waiver.

Since 2004, traditional Reservists and individual mobilization augmentees could only serve up to 1,095 man-days of the previous 1,460 days in a rolling four-year calendar. To serve more than 1,095 days required a waiver from the secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs.

“The new NDAA has replaced ‘1,095 days in the previous 1,460 days’ with ‘1,825 days in the previous 2,190 days,’” said Wanda Henderson, a personnel specialist in AFRC’s Directorate of Manpower, Personnel and Services (A1) here. “This is good news for the Air Force Reserve because it provides us with more flexibility and encourages volunteerism.”

Prior to 2004, Reservists couldn’t serve more than 179 man-days on active duty in a given year without an approved waiver.

The change in the NDAA that allows Reservists to serve the equivalent of five years of man-days in a rolling six-year period of time – up from three years in a four-year span – is good news for Reserve Citizen Airmen who were nearing the old 1,095-day limit. It also encourages more Reservists to volunteer and makes service more predictable for them, their families and their employers.

Henderson said that Reserve Component members exceeding 1,095 days in the previous 1,460 had been accounted against active component and Active Guard Reserve end strength, consistent with tour funding – Military Personnel Appropriations against the active component and Reserve Personnel Appropriations against AGR.

In order to limit and control accounting against AGR strength, AFRC implemented an AROWS-R hard hold requiring AFRC deputy commander approval for a member to exceed the 1,095-day threshold.

“A systems change request adjusting the hard hold to the new NDAA thresholds has been submitted,” she said. “In the interim, force support squadron commanders and RIO (Readiness and Integration Organization) detachment commanders are authorized to clear 1,095-day hard holds after validating that the member will not exceed 1,825 ADOS (active duty for operational support) days through the order’s end date.”

For more information, Reserve Citizen Airmen can e-mail the AFRC AIRR organizational box at AFRC.DPXX@us.af.mil.