by Capt. Candice Ismirle
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
5/7/2013 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- First lieutenants will no longer meet a promotion central selection board to make captain, Air Force officials announced May 7.
Effective immediately, the Secretary of the Air Force approved the elimination of the Captain's Central Selection Board.
The Air Force is returning to the same promotion process that was in effect prior to July 2011. First lieutenants will now be informed by their chain of command if they are recommended for promotion to captain.
The Air Force is returning to a 100 percent promotion opportunity, allowing commanders to determine if an officer should be promoted.
"Senior raters will now provide a recommendation to promote or not to promote officers. All officers will get promoted unless their senior rater makes a recommendation of "do not promote," said Lt. Col. Colin Huckins, the Promotions, Evaluations, and Fitness Policy Branch Chief.
According to senior officials, the boards are being eliminated due to the significant amount of time and financial investment for a very small quality cut, which affected few officers due to high promotion rates. The Captain's Central Selection Board rate was 95 percent.
With limited time in service, most first lieutenants have thin records and little operational experience, making it difficult to fully evaluate performance and future potential.
There will be 3,056 first lieutenants in the promotion zone and 213 above the promotion zone this year.
For more information about career development or personnel issues, visit the myPers website at http://mypers.af.mil.
Comments
5/8/2013 11:45:23 AM ET This would work fine only if commanders make the tough calls...and they won't. Unless you have a murder conviction and even then I have my doubts chances are 99.99 per cent you'll be promoted to Capt.Senior raters...Wing Commanders in most cases...don't have a clue about all the 1st Lt's in the wing other than the flying community and maybe a few rated officers that hang out at the club trying to fit in by playing Crud with the pilots.They have to rely on their Group CCs who in turn have to rely on the judgement of their SQ CCs. How about extending the time an officer spends at the 2nd and 1st Lt ranks by a year each allowing them to gain more operational experience and job knowledge They'll have at least two more OPRs in their record to review.Then promote Capts to Maj at the five year point vs. the current seven year average.
Sgt Snorkle, USA
5/8/2013 11:03:59 AM ET @ AFRet great points. I say promote them faster let them pile up and RIF will catch them eventually.
Im a runner, TX
5/8/2013 10:02:07 AM ET Excellent idea good decision and good example of looking at the cost to benefit ratio of institutional processes.
Dean Vinson, Ohio
5/7/2013 7:39:12 PM ET Another thoroughly vetted quality force program with certain beneficial results. Promote any run-of-the-mill 1st Lt to a position where heshe commands senior NCOs who've tested for five stripes and been boarded for at least two of them. How about instead of shuffling L-Ts around every 12-months leave them in one position to at least become knowledgeable prerhaps even competent. It's bad enough Lt Cols can't even be trusted to a position without violatng the basic tenants of their job discription hint hint.
