Chronic Critical Skill career fields offer opportunities

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Julie Weckerlein
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
Enlisted Airmen serving in certain career fields have a greater opportunity for promotion through an annually updated Chronic Critical Skills Program list. 

A number of factors are considered before certain Air Force Specialty Codes are put on the list. For one thing, the AFSC must have manning that's below 85 percent of what's authorized. Other factors include the number of Airmen within the career field who are eligible for promotion, overall sustainability of the career field and career field manager input. 

"The program provides flexibility by providing low manned, war fighting, mission critical or critically-manned specialties with increased promotion opportunity," said Chief Master Sgt. Mark Long, enlisted promotions and evaluations policy chief at the Pentagon Directorate of Force Management Policy. 

"The CCS list is updated annually prior to each promotion cycle to account for manning and mission fluctuations. Skills identified for the list receive an increased promotion rate 1.2 times higher than normal," Chief Long said. 

The 2008 program includes 37 specialties (24 staff sergeants, 18 technical sergeants and 19 master sergeants) receiving increased promotions. The 2008 Technical and Master Sergeant promotion release is scheduled for June 26, followed by the Staff Sergeant release in August. 

Below is the list of enlisted AFSCs affected by the 2008 CCS program:
AFSC title promotion cycle

1A0X1 In-flight refueling -- technical sergeant
1A2X1 Loadmaster -- staff sergeant
1A3X1 Airborne mission systems -- technical sergeant
1A4X1 Airborne battle management  -- staff and technical sergeant
1A7X1 Aerial gunner -- staff sergeant
1A8X1 Airborne crypto linguist -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1C1X1 Air Traffic Control -- staff sergeant
1C2X1 Combat control -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1C3X1 Command post -- staff sergeant
1C4X1 TAC air command and control -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1C5X1 Aerospace control and warning -- technical sergeant
1N0X1 Operations intelligence -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1N1X1 Imagery analysis -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1N3X0 Crypto linguist -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1N4X1 Network Intel Analysis -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1N5X1 Elec. Signals Intel Exploit -- staff, technical and master sergeant
1N6X1 Elec. System Security Assessment -- technical and master sergeant
1T0X1 Survive, Evade, Rescue, Escape -- technical sergeant
1T2X1 Pararescue -- staff, technical and master sergeant
2E2X1 Network Infrastructure systems -- staff sergeant
2R0X1 Maintenance data system -- master sergeant
2T2X1 Air transportation -- staff sergeant
2T3X7 Vehicle management -- staff sergeant
3C3X1 Comm Comp Sysm. Plan -- master sergeant
3E8X1 Explosive ordnance disposal -- master sergeant
3E9X1 Readiness -- staff, technical and master sergeant
4A1X1 Medical material -- staff sergeant
4A2X1 Biomedical equipment -- master sergeant
4C0X1 Mental health services -- staff sergeant
4D0X1 Diet therapy -- staff sergeant
4H0X1 Cardiopulmonary laboratory -- staff sergeant
5R0X1 Chaplain assistant -- master sergeant
6C0X1 Contracting -- staff, technical and master sergeant
7S0X1 Office of special investigations -- master sergeant
8A200 Enlisted aide -- master sergeant
9L0X0 Interpreter/translator -- technical sergeant
9S1X0 Technical applications -- staff sergeant 

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