Air Force issues correction to technical sergeant promotion cycle

The Air Force has acknowledged a scoring error that tainted the latest technical sergeant (26E6) promotion results for Security Forces, prompting a full re-score and a slate of corrections affecting hundreds of Airmen.

An enlisted promotions team member at the Air Force Personnel Center discovered that an outdated scoring key was used for the 3P071 Security Forces Specialty Knowledge Test, resulting in 27 miskeys and an erroneous promotion list for the 3P0 career field. No other Air Force Specialty Codes were affected.

“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David R. Wolfe. “This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”

After identifying the issue, the promotion team secured the correct answer key, validated it for accuracy, and had Security Forces subject matter experts confirm the fix. The team then re-scored all 2,285 eligible 3P0 candidates, establishing a new cutoff score that preserved the original quota of 586 promotions for the cycle.

According to the Air Force, 451 Airmen will retain their line numbers with no change. Another 135 will have their line numbers rescinded and become non-selects. The re-score also produced 135 new selects, who are expected to be notified about a week after leadership informs those who were erroneously selected. All newly selected Airmen from the re-score will receive a .5 suffix on their line numbers; the change will not alter promotion timelines.

“We promote Airmen based on merit, which is established in federal law and policy,” said Lt. Gen. Jefferson O’Donnell, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services. “Who we are as an Air Force, defined by our core values, demands integrity in the meritocratic promotion system; we have a core obligation to ensure the Airmen who earned it are selected.”

To finalize corrections across the force, AFPC will run an out-of-cycle, in-system supplemental release the week of July 13 for all AFSCs. That list will include the 135 Defenders whose corrected scores now meet the proper cutoff for technical sergeant. No action is required from eligible Airmen to be included in the supplemental.

“We owe it to our Airmen to own the mistake and to take the necessary actions to not only make it right today, but to prevent future issues,” Wolfe added.

Air Education and Training Command and AFPC have tightened internal controls in response, and the Air Force is conducting a comprehensive review of the Weighted Airman Promotion System data-transfer and validation process. New quality-assurance safeguards are being put in place to prevent a repeat of this failure point in future releases. Wolfe also convened a call with wing command chiefs to direct personal engagement by Security Forces leaders with affected Airmen and to share a hotline for follow-up questions. Airmen incorrectly selected for promotion began receiving notifications after a senior rater message sent July 7.

The Air Force said the problem stemmed from human error and that no artificial intelligence tools were used in the promotion process.