Mil-to-Mil Assignments

I received this question and I thought I would just make a post about it since I agree that there probably isn’t a lot of information out there. I have never actually been a “mil-to-mil” member so I am only going off of second hand knowledge, so I welcome anyone with first-hand experience to comment or chime in.

I’ve looked all over and can’t find anything relative to my situation, but I’m sure someone has gone through it before! I am currently a mil spouse, I work as a civilian on base. I am seriously considering applying to OTS, but since my spouse is active duty how would my first assignment work? We would both be Air Force and I know they try to keep married members together, but I highly doubt a position that I would be interested in would be available at our current base. So would they move him to where I am going or would there be a delay because they have to find somewhere for both of us? Also his job is available at all bases, so we wouldn’t be limited by that. Any insight would be so great!

February 2020

A “mil-to-mil” assignment or military couple refers to the situation where both married members are active duty military. For this post, I am going to just focus on if both members are in the US Air Force or US Space Force, since that is the process I am most familiar with. Having one member in a different service would just add one additional layer of complication to the below processes.

The Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) assignment teams manage the assignments for all officers, and it is usually divided by Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) category, (i.e., career field). For example, there is one assignment team for the entire 13S Space Operations career field, but last I heard there is one assignment team for ALL 6XXX career fields. AFPC works very hard to keep mil-to-mil spouses together. This is much more difficult if both members are in very small career fields, but easier if both are in very large career fields who can work anywhere world-wide. For example, if one member is Security Forces and the other is Command Post, they can basically go to any base. If one member is an RPA pilot and the other is a nuclear weapon maintainer, it can be more difficult.

The general difference between officer and enlisted assignments is that officer assignments are almost entirely hand-selected while enlisted assignments are more of a numbers game based on AFSC and rank. Mil-to-mil officer assignments require even more hands-on attention, which we can see in our officer assignment system which asks for the Yes/No mil-to-mil status and spouse’s SSN for both members.

Timing

AFPC works very hard to keep mil-to-mil spouses together. Believe it or not, the assignment teams DO care for their people and they recognize the hardship that can be placed on families and the mission when they are stationed apart. Likely the largest factor when they select an officer’s next assignment is timing. There is a general tempo in all career fields for how long they want an officer to be on station before they PCS. This is a larger-strategy that is defined likely at the Headquarters Air Force level, and AFPC and the career field functional managers just follow suit. The idea with lining up the timing for both officers is for both members to PCS at the same time (ideally).

The other aspect of timing is the stage of each officer’s career. As an example, in the 13S career field they want us to work at the tactical unit (squadron) level for the first two assignments, then work an operational-level assignment for the third and perhaps fourth assignment. An example of an operational-level assignment is at the National Space Defense Center or HQ Space Force. It can matter if one member is on their first assignment at a missile warning radar but the right thing for the other member is to work at HQ Space Force. There are times when one member may have to sacrifice what is “right” for where they are in their career so the other can get an awesome top-strat type job. Some married couples pick one member to go far while the other just tags along, while others try to swap back and forth. The higher they get in their careers, the more difficult this balance can become.

Location

The more obvious factor in this is where each member is vectored to be located. For a 13S Space Operations Officer and a 31P Security Forces Officer, almost any base makes sense. Locations with multiple bases such as Lackland AFB and Randolph AFB (TX), or Peterson AFB and Schriever AFB (CO) can make even more sense. For a more limited pairing such as a nuclear weapons maintenance officer and a contracting officer, the most-constrained assignments usually take the priority. For example, the nuclear weapons maintenance officer may need to be slotted for one of the Air Force Global Strike Command bases first, then they will work to slot the second officer for a contracting officer position. Sometimes this may be at the same base while other times it may be a 4-6 hour drive. All of these factors are considered.

Billets

At the end of the day, the binding constraint is the number and location of billets across all of the different bases. Every assignment cycle the assignment teams are given X number of slots at bases A, B, C, etc. In order for an officer to be slotted for an assignment, there must be a billet available with generally correct timing. It is possible for the assignment team to slot multiple officers for one billet depending on the circumstances. If all of the billets at Nellis AFB, NV are filled and the officer filling them aren’t due to PCS for 3 more years, that assignment is usually not an option for that member.

The Bigger Picture

As you can see, the assignment teams have a lot of factors to weigh when they try to match mil-to-mil assignments. The main thing I want you to takeaway from this post is that the assignment teams have your best interest in mind and they are willing to work with you. Every member of every career field should have some sort of communication relationship with their assignment team, especially when you are due to PCS. Don’t be afraid to call your assignment team and fight for what is right for you and your family, (ideally with the blessing of your leadership.) To more directly answer the original question posted above, they would likely try to line up the member’s second assignment with the applicant’s first assignment. After that it would just be the juggling match I outlined above.