Fleet faces bottleneck in aviation community - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Fleet faces bottleneck in aviation community

The upper rungs of the Navy’s officer corps have a lot — maybe too many — aviators.

Retention among aviation officers has been dramatically higher than for other Navy communities during the past decade. The Navy has about 650 more aviation officers than manpower experts say are needed. On the other hand, the Navy has authorized slots for hundreds of officers in the submarine and surface communities but not enough officers in uniform to fill those jobs, personnel data show.

“Clearly we are managing a larger inventory than the other communities,” said Capt. Mike White, director of aviation officer distribution at Navy Personnel Command.

The result is that up to 80 percent of undesignated billets, including Pentagon staff jobs or other slots that do not require specific skills, are held by aviation officers, White said.

One key reason for the high retention: Job opportunities and pay levels in the airline industry have fallen significantly.

Years ago, the Navy commissioned large groups of officers under the assumption that a significant number would leave the Navy and move into commercial aviation. But recently, many of those officers have decided to stay in uniform.

One primary effect is the heightened competition in the screening boards for department heads and command opportunities. The number of aviation squadron commanding officer billets has not changed despite the larger pool of potential candidates. That means aviation officers are fanning out into other Navy communities.

“If it doesn’t look like they are going to screen for the next milestone, we want to get them to a field that allows them to continue to grow,” White said.