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Retirement application process centralized for reservists

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Rob Mims
  • Air Reserve Personnel Center Public Affairs
DENVER --  Beginning July 31, all eligible members of the Air Force Reserve will submit their retirement application electronically via the virtual Personnel Center Guard and Reserve, a 24/7 customer service Web portal operated by the Air Reserve Personnel Center here.

“The ultimate goal is to improve and streamline how we deliver services to our reservists,” said Col. Ann Shippy, ARPC commander. “We’re leveraging technology and Web application to help strike the balance necessary to continue to deliver service with fewer personnelists.”

Previously, reservists had to visit their local military personnel flight, complete the required retirement application package, submit it to their supervisor or commander, and send it to ARPC.

This new Web-enabled service is available at any time from anywhere in the world and will give Airmen the ability to monitor the status of their application from start to finish. Reservists can log on to the vPC-GR at http://arpc.afrc.af.mil/support/default.asp to begin the process.

When the submission is received, the customer is e-mailed a tracking number. After the member’s commander (or program manager for individual mobilization augmentees) has electronically endorsed the application, the Reserve Personnel Contact Center at the ARPC will verify eligibility and finalize the application.

Once approved, the vPC-GR will send e-mail notifications to the member and the person’s commander or program manager. This new process only applies to members who have not yet initiated a retirement application. This process does not apply to Airmen who have already applied for retirement through their local MPF.
ARPC and the National Guard Bureau are working together to expand this capability to Air National Guard members in the near future.
The technical wizards and personnel specialists of the Service Delivery Transformation Team at ARPC continuously study which processes handled by local MPFs can be centralized and automated at ARPC.

Craig Carter, Thomas Laursen and Gregory Zipprich from ARPC’s Personnel Data Systems directorate, developed vPC-GR from scratch with limited investment while expanding on an Air Force standard case management tool that is fully integrated to Web service delivery. Each time a new process is tagged for automation, the team works on developing the application to deliver the service.

In the future, centralized services should account for nearly every aspect of every reservists’ personnel actions, from initial enlistment to far beyond retirement and everything in between.

ARPC and the Air Force Personnel Center are working simultaneously on centralizing and automating many of their processes for all Airmen and civilians in the Total Force.

For more information about ARPC Personnel Service Delivery, visit http://arpc.afrc.af.mil/psd/default.asp. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)