The Air Force released the names of airmen selected for promotion to technical sergeant on Thursday.
Of the 33,569 staff sergeants who were eligible for promotion in the 2016 E-6 cycle, 7,501 were selected, resulting in a selection rate of 22.35 percent.
And the promotion results continue to shed light on how the Air Force's new quota-based promotion recommendation system for enlisted airmen is working. Statistics released by the Air Force Personnel Center show that 2,020 airmen who had received the top "promote now" recommendation were selected for promotion, which represents 97.5 percent of eligible airmen who got that recommendation.
Another 2,348 airmen who received the next-highest "must promote" recommendation were selected. Those selectees represented 63.5 percent of the airmen who were deemed "must promote." The remaining 3,133 selectees were rated "promote," and accounted for 11.6 percent of those getting that third-highest recommendation.
That means 52 airmen were passed over despite receiving the top promotion rating, and 1,348 receiving the second-highest rating were passed over for tech sergeant.
This is similar to the results of the first promotion cycle under the forced distribution system — the master sergeant promotions announced in May. A few hundred promotion-eligible tech sergeants who received one of the top two recommendations were passed over for master sergeant.
The Air Force said then that it needed to further study the promotion results to see what effect forced distribution is having on promotions. But the Air Force noted that while receiving the top promotion ratings does give an airman a boost, it doesn't necessarily guarantee a promotion. Testing and other factors help determine what score an airman receives, apart from the enlisted promotion report points that come with an airman's rating. And an extremely poor score on an airman's test could conceivably kill his chances for promotion, even if he got the top rating.
The top 5 percent of staff sergeants who were up for promotion got the promote now rating and the full 250 EPR points that came with it. The next 10 percent got the must promote rating and the accompanying 220 EPR points.
The average selectee had an overall score of 380.67. The average time-in-grade was 4.6 years and the average time-in-service was 9.51 years. Selectees' average EPR points was 219.73, their average decoration score was 5.57, their average promotion fitness examination was 69.24, and their average specialty knowledge test score was 67.39.
The career fields with the lowest cutoff scores, indicating competition was lightest, were 2A9X3 bomber/special electronic warfare and radar surveillance integrated avionics, 2A8X1J mobility air forces integrated communication, navigation mission systems specializing in tankers, 2A8X2J mobility air forces integrated insturment and flight control systems specializing in tankers, 2A3X3 tactical aircraft maintenance and 2A5X4 refuel/bomber aircraft maintenance.
But the jobs with the highest cutoff scores and toughest competition, with more than 10 selectees, were 8B100 military training leaders, 1U0X1 remotely piloted aircraft sensor operators, 3E8X1 explosive ordnance disposal airmen, 8T000 professional military education instructors, and 3N1X1 regional band musicians.
Selections are tentative until that data is verified, which usually happens within 10 days of promotion announcements.
Here is the list
of names of list of selectees.
can be found here.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
