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New policy puts NCOs at Senior Academy earlier

Beginning Jan. 1, all master sergeants must complete the 6½ week resident Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy before they are promoted to senior master sergeant.

The change puts NCOs at the academy about two years earlier in their careers than in the past.

“The policy is one that as we look at continuing to deliberately develop airmen, it’s going to give the member, the young master sergeant, the education earlier in their careers so they can have more opportunity to use that education they receive in the United States Air Force,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force James Roy told Air Force Times on Nov. 9.

Before this policy change, completion of the Senior NCO Academy, at Air University at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., was required only before promotion to E-9. That requirement has been in place since the academy opened in January 1973.

This “is a little bit of a shift from where we used to be,” Roy said. “We want our master sergeants to go to the Senior NCO Academy. It’s better than if they get that at the end of their careers.”

Closes 10-year gap in PME

The move also closes the approximately 10-year gap between the time airmen attend Airman Leadership School, designed for senior airmen or staff sergeant selects, and when they would attend the academy for additional professional military education, Roy said.

In preparation for the policy change, airmen who are already senior master sergeants or E-8 selects who have not attended the Senior NCO Academy are either being scheduled for upcoming classes or allowed to seek a promotion waiver, Roy said.

Those who receive a waiver to be promoted without first completing the academy will have 179 days to get that education, Roy said.

The academy offers five classes a year beginning in October, January, March, June and July. Each class has about 315 senior NCOs, for a class load of more than 1,500 airmen per year, Roy said. The academy also provides two Chief Master Sergeant Leadership Courses each year.

About 85 senior master sergeants have not attended the academy and have not been scheduled to do so, said Chief Master Sgt. Mark Long, chief of enlisted promotions, evaluations and physical fitness for the Air Force personnel directorate.

The Air Force is tracking each of these NCOs by name and is working to schedule their attendance at the academy, Long said.

About 87 others are E-8 selects who have not attended the academy for reasons such as illness, deployments or hardship, Roy said.

These airmen will have to request promotion waivers and schedule their attendance at the academy within the six-month window, he said.

“We want to make sure we don’t leave any of our airmen behind because it’s not their fault,” Long said.