Support officers in some overmanned career fields may be eligible to volunteer for retraining into an undermanned career field in support of the Air Force 2012 nonrated line officer crossflow program.

Applications for the program will be accepted Feb. 17 through March16.

Crossflow is one of various initiatives implemented in an ongoing effort to balance the force, said Joseph Marchino, the Air Force Personnel Center special duty assignments branch chief.

"Officers have always been able to crossflow into other career fields, but until last year, it was a less formal process," Marchino said. "Each request was considered on its own merit, with coordination between the losing and gaining career field teams. This program formalizes procedures to ensure the process is fair and competitive for all affected officers."

Last year, 73 officers crossflowed into the control and recovery, air liaison, intelligence, public affairs, developmental engineer and acquisition manager career fields.

This year, officers from year groups 2001-2004 in the following career fields are eligible to volunteer for crossflow: weather, cyberspace operations, aircraft maintenance, munitions and missile maintenance, logistics readiness, security forces, force support, behavioral scientist, chemist, physicist, financial management and special investigations.

Officers from year groups 2005-2008 in the munitions and missile maintenance, security forces, behavioral science, chemist, physicist, and special investigations career fields are also eligible to volunteer.

To date, according to Marchino, the intelligence career field has more than 150 openings for crossflow candidates and public affairs has 20 openings.

The AFPC special duty assignments branch will accept applications through March 16. A panel of five colonels representing affected career fields will convene the week of March 26 to select volunteers for crossflow.

"We are accepting volunteers for this program, but if we don't have enough volunteers to fill available training quotas, non-volunteer selections may be necessary," Marchino said. "Officers selected will be notified in early April and could begin reporting as early as June."

Some officers within the eligibility year group and career fields are not eligible to apply, including officers with an established date of separation, those with quality control indicators, those enrolled in advanced degree and other developmental programs, sitting commanders and officers selected for command, officers with cyberspace defense, nuclear and psychological operations qualifications, and others, Marchino said.

"Officers should carefully review the crossflow eligibility and application messages to determine if they are eligible before beginning the application process," he said.

For more information on the crossflow program, including exemptions and application instructions, or information on other personnel issues, visit the secure Air Force Personnel Services website at https://gum-crm.csd.disa.mil.