An Analysis of the Populations of the Air Force's Medical and Professional Officer Corps.

Since the advent of the all-volunteer force, one of the foremost personnel challenges of the U.S. Air Force has been recruiting and retaining an adequate number of medical and professional officers in the Air Force's seven medical and professional officer corps: the Biomedical Sciences Corps (BSC), the Chaplain Corps, the Dental Corps, the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps (attorneys), the Medical Corps (physicians), the Medical Service Corps (MSC), and the Nurse Corps. For each of these corps, there are highly similar jobs in the private sector, so attracting and retaining these corps' officers is a constant challenge. This article analyzes all seven Air Force medical and professional officer corps and their relative statuses with regard to end strengths, accession levels, promotion flow, and attrition since the late 1970s. The authors find that recent accession and retention trends have been most adverse in the Air Force's Nurse Corps, while the MSC and the JAG Corps appear to have the most stable populations.