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13,518 to become staff sergeants

Thousands of airmen will sew on a fourth stripe in the next year.

The good news came Thursday for the 13,518 senior airmen selected for promotion sometime between September and August 2011, with the exact month determined by seniority-based line numbers.

Senior Airman Robert McDonough found out shortly after 6 a.m. Mountain time that he is going to be a staff sergeant.

The A-10 crew chief at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., had been walking into a hangar when he heard screams from co-workers gathered around a computer screen, searching frantically for their names. He took a peek at the list: MCDONOUGH ROBERT S.

“I’m feeling very good today,” McDonough said.

Last year, McDonough tested and didn’t make the cut.

“I really studied a lot more,” he said. “I had to get caught up with my friends who made it last year.”

The selection rate

This year’s selection rate was 47.41 percent, down 2.38 percentage points from the 2009 rate but still better than the 2006 rate of 35.87 percent — a 10-year low.

The number of airmen competing for promotion this year was 28,510, down from 30,574 last year; the average promotion score for selected airmen was 282.88 points, compared with 275.81 points.

As in past years, higher test scores made the difference.

On average, selects scored 23.42 more test points. The difference between average Enlisted Performance Report scores was just 6.70 points, with selects earning 131.31 points and non-selects getting 124.61 points. The maximum EPR score is 135 points.

Senior Airman Jonathan Ragan, a security forces airman at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., also got the nod. He was alone in a watch tower when his command post radioed him.

Making staff sergeant on his first try convinced Ragan to re-enlist next year for a second term.

Senior Airman Brandon Collins, also a security forces airman at Whiteman, had a hard time waiting to see if he succeeded on his first try.

“This morning I was pretty nervous,” Collins recalled.

Shortly after finding his name on the Air Force Personnel Center website, Collins started getting congratulations from his bosses in the squadron headquarters building.

“My supervisors gave me a balloon, a box of candy and a staff sergeant’s coin,” he said.

Promotion names

— Staff sergeants, A to C

— Staff sergeants, D to E

— Staff sergeants, F to G

— Staff sergeants, H to J

— Staff sergeants, K to L

— Staff sergeants, M to O

— Staff sergeants, P to R

— Staff sergeants, S to T

— Staff sergeants, U to Z