The chief of Air Force enlisted policy made her case for the long-awaited overhaul to the way airmen are evaluated and promoted, likening the impending changes to a "fifth-generation" system during the final day of the annual Air Force Association conference.

"This is my KC-46. This is my F-35 promotion system and evaluation system," Chief Master Sgt. Brandy Petzel told a roomful of mostly enlisted airmen Wednesday afternoon in a forum outside Washington, D.C.

"Our Air force deserves a fifth-generation promotion system and evaluation system because we are a completely different force than in 1970 when we started using this system," she said.

Petzel also provided new details about the changes that are part of an 18-month rollout for active-duty airmen and a 30-month overhaul for the Air National Guard and Reserve.

Among the changes:

■Only 10 percent of master sergeants and 20 percent of senior master sergeants will receive senior rater endorsements.

"If you are not within that 10 percent or 20 percent, your evaluation will be signed by a deputy evaluator," Petzel said.

That will provide the senior NCO promotion board with a look at how each airman sits among his or her peers, she said.

■Beginning next fall, the Air Force will restrict the number of top promotion recommendations on junior enlisted evaluations to those who are promotion-eligible.

When airmen are promoted, they are "not eligible for promotion [again] in many cases for up to two years," Petzel said. During those years, "you wouldn't get a 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 on your EPR."

■Technical sergeants vying for their next rank must overcome what Petzel referred to as a "hurdle."

Because reviewing the records of every E-6 would take a board two months,all promotion-eligible technical sergeants will have to make the board by scoring within the top 60 percent of eligible airmen. That will be based on testing scores added with decorations, time in grade, time in service and EPR points.

"They will look at those records and 'rack and stack'" promotion-eligible technical sergeants, Petzel said.

EPR points will be replaced with a board score to help create a weighted airman performance system score, which will determine whether or not airmen are promoted, she said.

■Static close-out dates — the date on which every airman by rank will have their evaluation close out — will coincide with promotion eligibility cut-off dates.

That's Nov. 30 for technical sergeants, Jan. 31 for staff sergeants and March 31 for senior airmen and below, Petzel said.

"These are things we have wanted to do for decades," she said. "Now is the right time."

Share:
In Other News
Load More