AF officer developmental education selection results released

  • Published
  • By Kat Bailey
  • Air Force’s Personnel Center Public Affairs

The Air Force has selected more than 800 officers for intermediate and senior developmental education during the 2017 Developmental Education Designation Board held at the Air Force’s Personnel Center Sept. 26, 2017.

The board designated 786 line and 38 non-line officers to attend in-residence DE during the 2018-2019 academic year.

“Developmental opportunities are designed to educate and professionally broaden individual officers into strategic leaders who can provide innovative solutions to the future complex challenges facing the Air Force,” said Kris Hunter, deputy chief of officer developmental education at AFPC.

Officers selected for DE will attend intermediate- and senior-level development programs such as Air Command and Staff College, Air War College, National War College and more. Continuing the policy from last year, officers will again have the opportunity to decline DE at any point without the implications of the seven-day option policy. This means that regardless of when the officer declines the DE opportunity, the officer will not be subject to the 7-day option policy and will not be forced to separate or retire.

Additionally, officers who develop a personal or family hardship can be removed from DE at any point. Officers can also make a “personal choice” to decline the DE opportunity up until the class start date.

“The unpredictable landscape we operate in requires agility in our talent management processes. Our declination policy provides this agility and ensures avenues are available to help us retain talented Airmen. While important, these developmental opportunities differ from operational assignments where we do not have as much leeway and must continue to ensure we meet Air Force commitments across the globe,” said Maj. Gen. Brian Kelly, AFPC commander.

While declinations will always be honored, AFPC recommends and has set a target date of Feb. 23 for the upcoming academic year, or as soon as officers know they will be unable to accept opportunity. That target date is designed to help minimize impacts to individual officers, families and commanders.

Kelly stated the Air Force established the declination timeline for three primary reasons. The first reason is to provide a courtesy to fellow Airmen and their families who are activated as a backfill for a DE slot. The second, to ensure the officer declining DE has the opportunity to submit a new DE plan and compete for attendance the next year, provided they have remaining eligibility to attend.

“The third reason we established a recommended declination timeline was to provide commanders the opportunity to nominate the officer if they have remaining eligibility, adjust stratifications and work backfill actions based on new vacancies,” Kelly said. “We want to provide our Airmen, their families and commanders added flexibility within the Air Force assignment system.”

The IDE/SDE selection list has posted to myPers and additional details regarding developmental education are available there as well. Prior to posting the list on myPers, AFPC provided senior raters with advanced knowledge of their officers’ selection to allow notification through the chain of command. Click the Force Development link from any Officer landing page or select any officer category from the dropdown menu and search “developmental education.”

For more information about Air Force personnel programs, go to myPers. Individuals who do not have a myPers account can request one by following these instructions.