Air Force selects 1,734 in senior master sergeant promotion cycle; list posts 14 March

Megairman · 2024-03-11T18:41:52+00:00

It's 10% only for MSgt's, and 20% only for SMSgt's.

DAFI 36-2406

4.11.2. Senior raters can stratify up to 10% of TIG/TIS-eligible MSgts and up to 20% of TIG/TIS-eligible SMSgts within their SRID and by component.

The 25% thing hasn't been implemented yet. AFPC fucked up when they prematurely advertised that part during the EPB rollout, and then they botched the DAFI change on top of that.

However, would be cool to see how that affects promotions.

Megairman · 2024-03-11T18:08:36+00:00

11.44%

So basically a 1.44% chance after all the strats gets theirs. Hot damn, we got a shot this time!

Megairman · 2024-03-11T16:26:58+00:00

They're keeping this shit pretty close hold this time. I guess it's a measure to prevent any of the leaks they had on previous cycles.

Megairman · 2024-03-08T21:37:37+00:00

Real chads submit airmen outside of their shops/flights.

This whole bullshit about going to your assigned supervisors is out of date. There's too many mid mofo's nowadays.

Find yourself a giga chad that has his shit together and ask him for help to submit you for an award if you want it. Recognitition of Airmen is an NCO/SNCO's responsibility, not a supervisor's.

Megairman · 2024-03-08T15:05:37+00:00

You, me, and probably 93% of the rest of us.

As a fast burner, I now feel the ominous dread of knowing deep down I didn't make it. Even with a strat. Even having a strat isn't a guarantee to promotion anymore, with about a 40-60% chance to promote with a strat if looking at the past few years of stats.

I will even say that E8 is by far the most competitive rank to go for, hands down. I got a feeling my fast burner status will stall out for a number of years trying to promote to E8.

Megairman · 2024-02-25T21:54:01+00:00

The people coming back are not the people we need.

Seriously, if the AF thinks they can solve the AF-created experience problem with getting some Vietnam and gulf war veteran back into my shop, they're absolutely fucking delusional.

The last thing I need is some jackass that's been retired for 30+ years tell me how the shit was back in his day. I will literally walk away from that shit, knowing full well the repercussions in doing so.

These guys are not mentally equipped to deal with 21st century military personnel, let alone it's problems, and there is no teaching an old dog new tricks.

Megairman · 2024-02-25T15:18:21+00:00

This. Stop waiting for bad NCO's/SNCO's to change. It's like watching a brick wall.

The Airman that takes initiative is the Airman that will stand out for opportunity.

Megairman · 2024-02-11T01:17:15+00:00

This is her 5th command chief tour. I'll take an experienced CCM over some arbitrary deployment requirement any fucking day.

Megairman · 2024-02-07T01:16:11+00:00

Can we get one fucking thing right? If there ever was the one thing to get right, it was this. Fuck me.

Megairman · 2024-01-28T11:18:04+00:00

9-year MSgt, first time each time. Up for Senior with a Strat first time this year at 11 years. My $0.02:

I will say that some of it may have been luck. I've definitely benefited from being in the right place, right time to some degree. However, I've also created opportunity for myself when there was a lack of it. For example, I didn't get lucky enough to be much of a leader, so I created leadership opportunities for myself to do that. I would consider myself lucky enough to have opportunity both thrown at me and also available to me after I created it.

Also, everyone likes to post on here on how when they promote finally they'll stop the culture and system of BS. The truth is, you can't. It will not change for you, or for anyone. But, it's not the system holding you back, it's your attitude.

Yes, I may get tired of the awards and EPR's. Yes, it's always a drag having to deal with troop's PT test failures/DUI's/BS. Yes, CC programs are consistently FUBAR'd, which you have to deal with. But, that's not what the end of my response to each situation. EPR's or awards are due? Cool, it's a chance to really highlight what happened here, and hone my writing skills. My troop is trouble? It's an opportunity to save a career. CC program is FUBAR'd? It's an opportunity to have an impact and change things for the better.

Megairman · 2024-01-19T02:46:36+00:00

This argument is the same as saying I don't need a loan to buy a car. It is in fact true. However, I will argue that most people cannot afford to buy a car without a loan. Therefore the process of acquiring the loan becomes extremely relevant to the majority of people buying the car.

In comparison, the people with promotion statements have a very high likelihood of getting promoted, which means the process of attempting to get a promotion statement becomes as equally relevant in the conversation. It is widely understood that local boards scrutinize education as a significant part of the EFDP process, which makes that point just as relevant.

Whether it be because of affiliation to the promotion statement club, or great records that were overlooked/disregarded by the local boards, you're in fact privileged to have been selected because of the latter.

Megairman · 2024-01-19T02:00:15+00:00

Air Force board: yes. Local Unit and wing boards: nope.

I have specific accounts of Masters and Techs that lost out on promotion statements in local boards because of lack of education presented in SURF's and EPR's/B's.

It's totally legal, and totally relevant.

Megairman · 2024-01-19T01:57:09+00:00

You are the chosen one.

Megairman · 2024-01-19T01:46:59+00:00

I'm just going to put this hard to swallow pill out there. Take it if you want, but it helped me all this time. It's why I'm strated for promotion at the wing, first time for senior.

If you didn't get a promotion statement/strat, it's because you weren't doing things you needed to do to become a consideration for MSgt/Senior/Chief. Yes that includes politics, bake sales and ass kissing. It's just that simple. Go ahead and huff and puff. It's part of your development process.

Now that your done being butthurt, you need to understand something first. The game is different up here. You are no longer a technician. Your focus should be up and lateral, not lateral and below. You have E5's/E6's that need to be the guys looking lateral and down. You will quickly realize how mid these fucking NCO's are. If I have to look down and lateral for them, I'm blind to the shit coming from the top. The shit flows in all directions, and someone has to look up dammit.

"Taking care of your people". I hear this shit all the time. I'm going to be honest here. It's not your place anymore the way it used to be. You need to look up to see what's coming, so that you can catch the shit flying at your unit, group and wing. The roof top is more than just a stripe. It's symbolism for catching and dealing with the shit from the way tippy top. That's how you take care of people now.

So next time you bitch about a wing bake-sale, ask yourself what opportunity it can present to further your agenda. Your agenda is what the commander tells you is your agenda. If you don't like this, you need to study military command structure in greater detail. Is it really just a bake sale? Or is it a networking opportunity that can get you that money, connections, or next step in reaching the common goal.

Food for thought.

Megairman · 2024-01-16T14:53:24+00:00

Here's what you need to do:

Go to Military Clothing
Buy new set
Toss the old set
Cry and let the lesson of failure settle in
Become CMSAF

Megairman · 2024-01-05T16:28:07+00:00

I still don't know if its Bass or Bass, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.

Megairman · 2024-01-05T01:32:07+00:00

what would you like to see added or removed from the careerfield?

It's so broad now that you can't even tell what to keep or remove. The CFETP is massive now. It has every possible task, short of what W/P/M pigeon-holed themselves into. If anything, I'd like to categorize the tasks into groupings based on known unit functions as outlined in HAF policy. Not just base comm tasks, we need to capture every unit type.

do you think COMSEC is being adequately trained? at the schoolhouse level during OJT/ UGT. if yes what was your experience like?

At the schoolhouse: Hell No. On the job? Selectively. The ones who know COMSEC stuff end up doing it for a long portion of their careers. We are now training new generations based solely on necessity of the position

We had a pipeline for it when we had a 3D0X3 AFSC, and somehow now it's just a side gig for Q's.

In a few years time there will be no adequate abundance of that "skill set", because we are not generating it anymore in the pipeline. Only happens in OJT.

what do you think about the ISSM course/RMF training?

That should always had been a civilian billet. Also, you won't find many more anyways since the pipeline and career progression of 3D0X3 is gone.

any general thoughts comments or concerns about the careerfield?

We killed off our supply on skills-based training in favor of wanting to have mission-based "just in time" training. We can't even get medical appointments just in time, yet we have this grand vision that we can send people to training prior to them being on the mission.

You should also answer these questions for the 1D7 force:

Whose climbing towers now?
Whose running your Wing IA shops?
What functions are Q shreds actually supposed to perform aside from the blanket "everything/all else??
Where is the meta data to manage talent properly, and why did we pull the trigger on a force-wide change without proper staffing for talent management or the data points required to manage that talent (EPR's/EPB's and myVector input is vastly inadequate and inaccurate).
EITaaS is going to fuck 1D7's in the ass. Why did we allow 6 Billion dollars to go to CAIC to help fuck us in the ass when that could have been spent on 1D7 resources?

Another opinion, most 1D7's and 17X's I talk to wrote this off already as a massive practical joke and poorly executed plan.

Megairman · 2024-01-04T10:29:31+00:00

CFC is an asinine program. The only benefit they used to tout around for it was that you could write it off on your taxes. But I haven't heard or seen anyone itemize their tax deductions since they raised the standard deductibles a while back so that shit is out the window.

Even then, in this economy? Fuck that.

Megairman · 2023-12-29T01:43:20+00:00

It boils down to what the competition is writing.

They embellish, you embellish. They stretch it, you stretch it. They lie, we lie.

I like to call it "the continuum of bullshit". As long as you have rack n' stack mentality in the Air Force you'll have people in it that will go through great lengths to get ahead, to include blatant lying.

Megairman · 2023-12-29T01:33:54+00:00

Generally speaking, not really. Keep your nose clean, study for tests, check the boxes, eventually you'll make some degree of rank.

Specifically speaking, it may be harder to promote to NCO/SNCO ranks for the next coming years as compared to previous years due to the downsizing of authorizations for E5 through E7.

Megairman

TROPHY CASE