Air Force Community - Air Force Times

A degree of frustration

Academic achievement is a personal accomplishment that has essentially become a professional requirement for advancement in today’s Air Force.

The Community College of the Air Force was established for airmen to achieve their academic goals while enhancing their knowledge and skills for on-the-job use. Recently, the Air Force mandated that enlisted airmen have an associate degree from the CCAF to be considered for a senior rater endorsement, which is vital to senior noncommissioned officers seeking promotion to senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant. This was the subject of Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Rodney McKinley’s Aug. 28, 2006, edition of “The Enlisted Perspective.”

While this is an outstanding progression of knowledge for our war fighters, why is there a requirement to complete a CCAF degree — versus a degree from any other accredited civilian academic institution — for promotion consideration?

Many of our Air Force volunteers enter the service with degrees; some have advanced degrees. Others complete their degree while serving. However, the degree obtained may not be from the CCAF, but from a different accredited college or university and in a discipline other than their Air Force Specialty Code.

For example, an airman obtains a master’s degree in health care management. His AFSC places him in a degree plan focusing on logistics. The two disciplines are different. The requirements to complete a master’s far exceed those to complete an associate degree. However, the CCAF requires a speech class to satisfy the requirements for an associate degree. This implies that the master’s degree is subordinate to an associate degree.

This may sound like an implausible scenario for the simple fact that degree completion requirements for a bachelor’s degree and subsequent master’s degree would cover all degree completion requirements for a lower-level associate degree. However, this has in fact happened. It happened to me.

As with all degree requirements, general education courses — English, math, social science, history — are required to satisfy degree program requirements as well as specific courses applicable to the degree plan. Why is speech a prerequisite for degree completion through the CCAF? One can argue that professional development in the armed forces provides opportunities for members to speak to audiences as they advance in grade. Therefore, they should have knowledge in speech preparation and delivery.

Why aren’t all accredited degrees considered equally when an airman is up for advancement? Additionally, how can obtaining an advanced degree not satisfy lower-level degree requirements?

Considering the technical expertise needed in most AFSCs, requiring airmen to complete a degree for advancement is not necessarily a bad thing. However, a degree from any accredited institution should fulfill this requirement and not be monopolized through the CCAF.

The writer, an active-duty technical sergeant recently selected for promotion to master sergeant, is a fuels specialist with the 36th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Before joining the Air Force, he spent more than 11 years as a medic in the Coast Guard.