The mistake was “an isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly,” officials announced in a July 7 release.
“Following the recent technical sergeant 26E6 promotion cycle release, an enlisted promotions team member at Air Force Personnel Center discovered that an outdated scoring key was used for the 3P071 (security forces) Specialty Knowledge Test,” officials stated.
Air Force officials conducted a full re-score for all 2,285 security forces promotion eligibles and identified 135 airmen who should not have been selected.
“The re-score also identified 135 new selects,” the release stated, “who will be notified tentatively one week following senior rater notification to erroneous selects.”
The 3PO career field had a quota of 586 promotions for the 26E6 promotion cycle, out of a field of 2,285 3PO promotion eligibles. The 586 total remains after the re-scoring conducted for all the promotion eligibles.
Of those, 451 were not affected and will retain their line number.
“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David R. Wolfe said in a press release announcing the correction. “This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”
Those who were incorrectly selected for promotion are being notified by leadership following a July 7 message to senior raters sent, officials said.
Air Force Personnel Center will conduct an out-of-cycle, in -system supplemental promotion release the week of July 13, officials said. Those selected from the re-scoring will have a 0.5 added to their line number, which won’t affect promotion timelines, officials said.
The erroneous promotion cycle was the result of human error, officials said, with no artificial intelligence products involved in that process.
Wolfe held a call for wing command chiefs with affected members to discuss the situation, and to “direct personal engagement between security forces leadership and members impacted by the promotion error,” officials said.
Leadership were also provided a hotline to field follow-up questions.
In the wake of the mishap, Air Education and Training Command and Air Force Personnel Center have taken steps to strengthen their internal processes, officials said.
“Can you imagine the depression for those that were told they made it and now they will be told they have not,” wrote one commenter nicknamed Charming Apricot 9151 on the popular Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
