The 17th Training Wing denies reports of a planned mass firing of Goodfellow Air Force Base probationary civilian employees. We reached out to Goodfellow for answers to our questions that took off last Friday. Air Force officials did not answer our questions but gave this written statement. “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has indicated that the Pentagon is taking a deliberate, methodical approach to review its workforce and identify positions that may not directly contribute to warfighting success. There has been no direction to relieve Air Force employees at this time.”
This is contrary to reports we received from military personnel, their families and civilian employees on base. Piecing together information from various sources it appears that last week commanders and supervisors began informing personnel that instructions for terminations were coming. The base commander, or other Air Force officers at Goodfellow requested exemptions for all probationary civilian employees. They consider these positions mission critical for Goodfellow, in part because of its small size.
The Air Force told base personnel Friday that the terminations were on hold by DoD. But the Air Force later said the terminations were back on. They were to start terminating probationary civilian employees this week. Apparently that has not happened yet. The 17th Training Wing does not know the number of probationary employees at Goodfellow. According to their statement, the base is still trying to determine that number.
Employees Receive DOGE Email
Over the weekend the civilian employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management. This is the agency responsible for managing the federal work force. We were provided a copy of the email. It reads:
! High Importance
Please reply to this email with approximately 5 bullet points of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.
Please do not send any classified information, links or attachments.
Deadline is this Monday at 11:59 p.m. EST
Purportedly, the Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE) instigated this email. DOGE is not an authorized Department of the United States Government. Congress did not create this Department. Multiple lawsuits are challenging its legality.
The Department of Defense issued a statement over the weekend instructing personnel to not reply to the email or provide any information.
Base insiders report that Air Force officials told personnel to decide for themselves whether to reply to the DOGE email. That is contrary to the earlier directive from DoD.
No one has been terminated for now. We do not know if or when such terminations will happen. This leaves the base, its employees and their families in limbo. Regardless of the merits or necessity of these reductions, this is no way to treat our public servants, and no way to run a railroad.
1 Comment
Thank you for this report! I do know of a few people who took the delayed resignation offer, but I don’t know what guarantee they have of pay and benefits until September, except for an email.