Chronic Critical Skill career fields offer opportunities Published June 20, 2008 By Staff Sgt. Julie Weckerlein Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- 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 Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page