Maybe I’m overthinking this and perhaps I’m applying too much common sense but hear me out.
The “pulse” messages started April 8. They reported numbers for both O and E approvals. O’s at 167 and E’s at 2,471. As the weeks rolled on the O numbers slightly increase to 380 while the E’s haven’t moved. They now report 2,400 E’s because I suspect they want to use round numbers. That number has remained constant since the first “pulse” message.
This is despite weekly messages that they are continuing to processing remaining eligibles. Now, I get that processing and approving are separate things, but why play word games with this.
To me this look like they have reached another “strategic pause” even though they don’t want to call it that because of the backlash the last one caused.
Now to the rub. The E’s have the QFRB going on right now. Supposedly from May 5-25th? I don’t expect to hear anything on E VSP’s until after that.
My first thought is that it makes sense. Kick out the guys you don’t want first before letting the guys you do want. If this is the case then AFPC screwed up yet another portion of the FM. If I’m right, then they should have made that clear at the beginning. Poor planning is an understatement with this shit show.