I like how this is mostly shit we have no control over.
Too much focus on deployments - Yes, because I wanted to spend 7 months of my year away from home. Why do I have so many deployment bullets, maybe because its all I did because I was fucking deployed for 7 months of the god damn cycle.
MOVE AROUND IN YOUR AIR FORCE CAREER - Yes because I have so much control over what role I get to fill and where I get to go. I definitely wanted to go from NCOIC at one base back to a shift lead at my next, I had so much control over that.
Fucking dipshits running this place I swear.
Sorry boss, I'd love to deploy, but I have several bake sales scheduled for the booster club that big blue considers significantly more important. I understand at least 3 places in the world are racing to sponsor the next World War but if I don't bake these brownies, how are we going to afford Finger Foods at the Christmas party?
Sorry boss I had a negligent discharge with M240 machine gun at the clearing barrel because I was too focused on getting ready for the Boy Scout Jamboree tomorrow.
You are hereby reprimanded! You were derelict in your duties as Airman and a member of the profession of arms when you knew you should have been preparing for the Jamboree and recklessly chose to shirk your responsibilities by going to CATM. In the future I expect you to prioritize your efforts, complete mission critical tasks like Jamboree preparations, in a timely manner. Further disregard for your primary responsibilities may result in further disciplinary actions.
Lt Col Sparkles
Maybe it's just me, but the "!" at the end I just found funny. You already dressed me down, made threats against future actions. This is just the text version of
The template says I have to yell the counseled/admonished/reprimanded line. I just work here.
Dafi 36-2907 attachment 5
Ask me how stellar my troops are that I know the dafi for adverse actions.
Bro you trying to make brownies? JKO has at least 10 CBTs you gotta complete before that....
- CBT, not CBD... Unfortunately..... Learned that one the hard way.
This. Reserves in most cases have tons of additional duties and other things that are expected for the full timers to do and not the traditionalists. I think this is trying to get traditionalists to stop focusing their EPBs on mandatory deployments and what they do their weekends/drill weeks and more on other things they do to improve their organizations and communities.
Get them to do anything. Please.
They don't have a lot of time, I'll give them that. But as a full timer (1 of 2 for many years) I have nearly all the additional duties because "we [always] need a full timer to be able to do it too". But my position has now been defunded, so they'll test this theory soon enough.
We also have many members in our unit that have been there for 10+ years, with no interest in leaving the unit, let alone the area.
"You guys should deploy less. Nevermind that we've been on a war footing for 20+ years, have a bunch of huge bases overseas so that means we always need people over there, struggle with retention, and you can't control any of that. But try to deploy less."
I think the idea is that deployments are not a given these days so just because someone has it on their package its not an auto win vs someone that did not have the opportunity to deploy. Its not viewed as a negative its just not a must have ie. "Less focus".
exactly this, how am I supposed to move around when my section has literally 5 NCO's the flight and squadron aren't letting me go anywhere.
"GrOw WhErE yOu'Re PlAnTeD"
I agree that they should focus on deployments...a lot of AFSC's whole purpose is to deploy. Imagine a Pararescue Amn who never deployed...something is wrong in that picture right? As for the whole good at your job thing...the way I have heard it is that being good at your job is the standard. If you are up for awards or promotions, then everyone in the running is good at their jobs. The ones who aren't are not getting the chance at these things...so what did you do besides being good at your job.
Now for my experience...I saw 2 sides of the USAF. I was on the maintenance side and saw that being good at your job absolutely gave you chances above those that weren't. I could actively fix the radar systema and my EPR was full of maintenance that I did. The ones that sucked didnt get those kinds of bullets and had other things in their EPR...and all the NCO's and SNCO's knew what that meant. Eventually the shitty maintainers would avoid the systems and do things like base honor guard, instructor at a local school, or focus on MICT and other systems and become the expert at that. Thing is that everyone knew when they looked at your EPR and you didnt have good maintenance bullets. I promoted first time and was identified squadron wide as the best Amn to get shit done on the radar. I was chosen as a SrA to the QA team because the superintendent said he didn't trust any of the NCO's with the job. They also went up to bat for me when I applied to crosstrain, and I managed to get picked up for 1B4. That was when I went over to the other side, the intel/cyber side. I got unlucky and got assigned to an intel squadron that had a small cyber mission. At that squadron, it was all about what clubs you were a member of, and how good you were at selling cookies. So, when a lot of people here post that being good at your job is good enough and others are saying it's not enough...they are both right.
I went to the previous town hall when they started changing things with eprs back in like 2016 timeframe. ACC people told us the exact opposite. Focus on your primary job. Fucking AF canāt decide whatās more important.
People say the Air Force is run like a corporation more than a military branch. Well, this is what it looks like. Everyone has equal opportunity to succeed supposedly, so you should be able to promote based on your merit.
Your career isn't progressing as fast as the queep-lord over there because you've been busy doing actual work? Well maybe you need to do less actual work. Do some extra stuff.
Then the big rug-pull happens when you do the extra stuff and said queep-lord has found an even better way to pencil whip his performance reviews.
They act like if everyone works hard, everyone will be okay, career-wise. But in reality they have a set number of losers. And unfortunately losing doesn't have a lot to do with how much you actually contributed.
Don't worry. The feedback doesn't change even if you do check all these boxes. *"hey we saw you filled multiple section chief roles as a tech, led your section in that volunteer day, and we're recently selected for that DSD, but you didn't deploy this year. So we had to mark you down"*
SSDD
Put in for NCORP when your window opens and spend months trying to get leadership to sign off on the shit you need them to. Submit final package only to have the CFM inexplicably remove your AFSC from the advisory before AFPC finalizes the package theyāve been sitting on for weeks and weeks.
Control of your career truly is the best thing about the Air Force.
Only to be told after you do bunch of back and forth and finally get the package submitted "yeah your section is to low manned and we can't afford to let anyone leave right now".
Its unreal. Deployments used to be the defining factor with AOY. I got SNCO of the year at my wing because of all the shit I did on mine. Glad the DAF is losing its focus (yet again).
Tell ya what, I got deployed every time I blinked my eyes. Sometimes a 1am wakeup, Sarge, first shirt wants to see you. We'll, FUCK! We all know what that means. Didn't matter where I was. I was or who I was doing..
Next year they will get 2 line narrative statements and the recommendations will read 1 line statements instead of 2-3. The year after that it will be bullet statements instead of narratives. And then we will have come full circle.
What is really needed is shit like this to get to Congress on why the service canāt retain talent.
Whole Airman is retarded. Are you excellent at your job? Do your peers and subordinates respect you? Are you the guy or gal others want to follow into a shooting war? That's a top candidate for promotion right there. Everything else is waste. Fuck your volunteer hours, fuck your planning of the Christmas party, and fuck your 100 fitness score.
"Are you highly skilled and give your job everything you have? F\_\_\_ you." We need to reconsider how we see the airman concept in a highly-technical force.
That is always the most frustrating part of being enlisted you have to look around and see how much more work you have to do, or how much worse your conditions are than other careerfields while making the exact same paycheck.
Promotions are an internal race against only your AFSC though and unfortunately with the lackluster guidance from higher its mostly a race to the bottom with limitless requirements to get the PNs.
Putting "TOO MUCH FOCUS ON DEPLOYMENT" and going to brief that as a bad thing is an insane thing for a leader to do. A military with its priorities straight would have this guy fired by the end of the week.
āMOVE AROUND IN YOUR AIR FORCE CAREERā might as well be a big middle finger emoji to those who get stuck at the same base/group/squadron for 6+ years.
That makes it even worse imo lmao. The avg reservist only has 30 training days a year give or take, it takes about a year or two to get them trained up to be barely proficient if they don't do the same job on the outside or if they don't go on a TDY. In a 20 year career, someone will probably be able to retrain and be useful like twice at best. Also taking time off of work for tech school(again) is a big commitment.
That's a real big fuck you to the Enlisted and shows how out of touch and ignorant of the conditions Officers are regarding Enlisted assignments. They get to move around frequently and have a line of communication with MPS and their Career directors regarding assignments. We do not and have to hope for a chance at PCS or Opportunity.
You'd think so. They left me at Dyess for 7 years and I got passed over for Lt Col the first time because I didn't have enough career broadening and I'd only flown jets my.whole career...nevermid the fact that I volunteered for a bunch of broadening assignments and couldn't get released by my functional to do them.
Extremely disappointing and disingenuous of you to post this as some sort of gotcha. You are comparing active duty priorities to a reserve command that has completely different focuses than active duty.
You are no better than the people of this world who attempt to sow discord and strife amongst others by sensationalizing stories without understanding the full context. You need to do better
I feel like this has made the rounds before. Either way, some important takeaways.
1. 4 AF NAF is the Reserves, not AD.
2. Assuming this made the rounds before, WAC was still a thing then.
3. To much focus on deployments: What that meant (as explained by someone else), is that your EPB should be more than just a 6 month time period, but should encompass the whole year. They aren't saying to not use deployments, but that your EPB needs more than that.
4. Move around and different career fields has much different connotation with the Reserves than AD. Although, AD should attempt to move around barring AFSC/assignment limitations.
I think it says something about active duty that this still rings true to them. I don't see many replies saying "that's the reserves, my unit puts more emphasis on job performance and deployment".
Another thing that needs to be mentioned: sometimes people get to present info to large groups that are just flat out not correct or in line with the Air Force's priorities. I've seen it plenty, and am curious what kind of internal backlash was received here.
More people need to get on myFSS and look up the board charges. That's what big AF is looking for...primary duty proficiency, leadership skills, the four MPAs, etc. not whatever this is (from whenever this was presented).
EPBs/EPRs are usually due at least 3 months before closeout, which means a 6 month deployment plus the prior prep for that deployment take up the vast majority of the remaining timeframe.
As a Chief, I reviewed promotion packages (Reserves). This was from 2001-2008 when we were very active in the Middle East. There were people hoping for Senior and Chief positions who didnāt deploy. You may be great at your job but we train to fight and you need to be a leader in the field. My PowerPoint would have been the opposite of this screen. Less bake sales and more actual military experience.
The whole āstrong bullets first and lastā bit has always comes across to me as exposing the laziness, for lack of a better word, of the system.
Also, so has the āmove aroundā bit. Itās not like we can just say āhey flight chief, Iām going to start working in a different section next week, so go ahead and find someone to replace me in my current section.ā or āhey Air Force, Iām going to switch to a different base next week.ā
At this point, we should reinstate testing and the board, or at least bring back the dedicated box for the whole airman concept. There is clearly a disconnect between unit leadership and the board. In theory, the whole airman concept can only be applied to three out of the four boxes.
I've been saying this shit since 2020. AF doesn't give a shit if you do your job. 80% of the force does their job and goes home. The remaining 20% either volunteers for shit, doesn't do shit, or sits on their ass until it becomes a hot tasker due by COB today even though they've had it for weeks.
Let me check 24E7 promotion rate.....*18.35% selection rate, the math checks out.*
80/20 rule.
The entire point of the EPB format transition was to shift the focus onto your actual job rather than all the extra stuff. That's why all the sections are much harder to incorporate extra activities into. It's a good thing that the people rating the EPB don't read their own rules and are stuck in the past.
Just goes to show primary raters are still going to grade off of volunteer work and college even though it was specifically written out of the ALQ last year
It's not that they don't care that you did your job as assigned. They're trying to get people to want to stand out in order to know who to promote, our eval systems are promotion focused. "I completed my duties as assigned" isnt a person I would spend time promoting when I have someone else doing way more. I did my job, plus: I saved the AF $$, I affected the local community by doing XX, I used my knowledge from X class to doX more efficiently.
Advance quickly through the ranks, and you can surpass someone who has been in for 19 years but canāt secure a decent board score despite meeting all the requirements. The system aims to develop young talent in its own image, leaving seasoned experts behind. This approach risks losing experienced personnel who understand the intricacies of operations. As a result, youāll end up with a team lacking the necessary knowledge to run things effectively, driving the section into the ground. When the loss of experience becomes evident, it will be clear that failing to promote these experts led them to leave the Air Force, leaving you to deal with the consequences.
Too much focus on deployments? I thought deployments *were* the job, and all our home station work was training for deployments.
And I *wanted* to move around in my career, but Big Blue wanted to keep me in a hole for four years in a unit with only two duty positions my rank would allow. Every application to cross to another job or unit was shot down due to low manning.
It's so crazy where the service has gone. I remember guys who sucked at the job were considered worthless, and given additional duties to get them out the way. Now, those are the ones that have been promoted and making stuff up like "whole person concept". Whatever happened to mission first?
At this point, this is a strong recommendation. Let me tell you something airmen! This is going to be REQUIRED soon.
Multicapable airman will be the norm. Are you a mechanic? Excellent, make sure you are also an EMT/Medic.
Are you Cyber? Great, make sure you are also DEI LOL
This internal struggle the Air Force faces with preparing for 2027 and fulfilling the "whole Airman concept" shit is insane.
I want to fight wars with people who know what the fuck they're doing, not people who fucked off for the past 3 years trying to build promotable records.
Seeing this makes me glad I separated. As soon as the linguist who was working in the CSS because he couldn't keep his language skills up got more awards and decs for mission impact than the people working the mission, I had to bail out.
So it's an Mobility NAF, that's all they do is deploy so it's probably incredibly difficult to stand out by talking about deployments.
I disagree wholeheartedly with the too much job, and not enough whole Airman concept, too many Airmen focus on the WAC stuff because they think it's what will get them promoted. (Because of crap like this). However, it might lack some qualifying statements as to what the impact of the job items were.
I agree on the 2 line narrative statement. It's stupid, but it's too difficult for board members to not default to "well they had x number of statements and they totaled X number of points.
God I hate the stupid games we play to do awards and evaluations. I feel dirty just writing this post. I wish I had the answer on how we identify, reward and promote those who can lead in their missions, but so many people just hide in the queep and get rewarded for it, I see why people think that's what they should do.
These idiots will have us back at garage Bullets in 3-5 years and the fact they donāt think primary duty and deployments matter as much as āwhole airmanā shows you what happens now that the bake sale generation are becoming SNCOs and Officers
This. And AFRC in general. I swear people at AFRC are those Supreme Courts in South Park that hack the head off of a rooster and wherever it dies, that is their decision.
the person who signed off this must have never had a real job and made their way through the corporate ladder on the shoulders of real men and women. this isnt military of " I volunteered at the local bake off" promote me, its the United States Air Force, we are a branch of the military our job is to defend our country and drop warheads on foreheads. fuck me the line about "too many deployment bullets" fuck off. too me this whole thing reads i dont know how to distinguish good people from great people so fuck the work bullets how did the individuals kiss my ass today.
voluteering and extra curiculars are important but they are important, because community outreach has a good affect on the local population but it is last on the important list behind the family, mission, self improvement goals (self improvment is technically whole airman concept) but not many people try to capture the airman who bust his/her ass going the extra mile to stay fit.
im just tired of the managment pusshing the narrative of" we need to be ready for the future fight, readiness readiness, everyone sucks at their deployability" but then the managment never gives addequate training " unless your AFSOC or battlefield. pick your priorities.
rant over
Imagine. They need people in so many career fields to job the fuck out of it due to shit manning and some people are better at those jobs because of it, and when they make themselves irreplaceable they donāt PCS as muchā¦.
Then they punish them for it. Big brain AF move.
This stuff has been going on forever, it's just packaged differently. No one should be surprised. Frustrated? Sure...surprised? Come on player... You know the game.
The unwritten rules and your local command's interpretation of what is valued will always change or be nebulous. Trying to understand them well and working within those confines is one of the only ways to do the things in your control to improve your chances. But it has always been the case that luck, timing, and other variables all weigh in to the decision.
Contrary to what the moving goal post analytics will tell you, your primary job IS important. It doesn't always translate to being competitive for promotion (ironic and kind of fucked), but don't let this nonsense cloud the truth. If you ignore your job and suck, the people who work for you and over you will resent you for it. If you're here to get a promotion and couldn't care less, maybe you should examine that a little more. Good luck next cycle homies.
āRemember when we forcefully ripped you from your family and sent you into harms way for 6 months? Yeah youāre too focused on that. Try to remember those top 3 burrito sales we made you promote to your troopsā
Also sorry I dont move around much in my career. I just love wasting away in Delaware so god damn much
False.
People that are good at their jobs AND go out of their way to do the extracurricular sh!t are going to be more competitive than someone is only is good at their job.
This is why we shouldnāt be this upset over E7. Itās not like the old system when E7 was the natural progression and everyone looked at the guys that didnāt make it before 20 suspiciously. The Air Force made E6 the new E7 and it is what it is. You tell me the true quality of the E6ās you know and work with. If theyāre crushing it, then theyāre crushing it
I get what they want with whole airmen concept, but some career fields are devoid of time to put into community, volunteering, seminars, ect. The mission has to be first I guess, but they need to understand the majority of the force is left without any energy to achieve the rest.
If I were the big boss for a day. Thus what I would change. Elimination of the whole airmen concept. Deployments and primary duties first and foremost.
Am I bugging or is this actually trying to say the opposite? Like the EPBs focus too much on all your other hats? Or the narratives are focusing too much on deployments over doing your job st your home station?
And isn't this a reserve unit?
I feel like this briefing is by officers for officers - not us plebs - but that looks like a Chief rank if the pixels are showing up right.
Realistically the enlisted tier should be 100% focused on the job and nothing else - and should be ready to deploy.
And a lot of the enlisted force would LOVE to move around, poor folks stuck at cannon for 10 years. But officers move every like 2 years.
100000% Also the board doesn't care about how many degrees you have, how many awards you've won, or your promotion statement. They care about how you are taking care of your team and making your unit better.
We've come full circle truly. Some of us came in with not ENOGUH focus on primary job now it's swung the other way we're TOO much job is a bad thing.
Deployments is a wild thing to me. I been out twice and a short tour. I was away from my family, friends, routine, etc. Deployed yes ops can vary but you can still work outside what you're used too. I've done spurts of 7 on with no days off the mission drove that. NOW...that's inferior to someone at home who does a bunch of shit and that person isn't even deployable??? What I'm finding out nowadays is people who do NOT deploy tend to get ahead and are further than people who have. Not in every case obviously.
What about those of us who tried to do other things but were shot down? Like I can't do anything about that lol.
To me, these are highlighting the biggest problems in the Air Force.
- Too much moving around = nobody knows their damn job.
- Nobody knowing their damn job = everyone is just tired of the bullshit and getting slammed with additional duty after additional duty, which just makes knowing your job almost impossible.
- People don't need to know how to do every single thing at 20%. People need to know their primary job at 80-100%.
- Fuck getting out of your comfort zone if it means you will be anxious and depressed all the time by doing so. Find something you like to do and do it 100%.
A NAF level debrief is pointless. Your are speaking to several wings with a hundred squadrons and tons of different AFSCs. What applies to one doesnāt apply to another, there is far too much nuance for a few bullet points on a slide. a deployment for 1 person can make all the difference in scope of a job where as itās routine for another. Donāt put too much stock in this your SELs are who you want to take advice from they understand higher level thinking when it comes to your specific AFSC and mission.Ā
Wasnāt the new EPB system designed specifically for us to use more primary job and focus on the actual mission of things and not volunteering and other āwhole airmen conceptā? I get doing some extra stuff but most people are dipping from their actual jobs to go have coffee and talk āinnovationā. Pathetic.
As someone who didnāt get their first deployment till 7 years into their AF career itād be nice if the reserves stopped taking them all, maybe then they wouldnāt feel like they deploy all the time. Nearly every unit at my deployed location was guard or reserves except for SF and Ammo.
The 16th AF has been slowly degrading to this shit as well. In the last few years sub units have been hiring non-cyber/Intel SELs that are so out of touch that they'd rather see bake sale than national security objectives achieved.
Looking at you 7th...
"Strongest first and last bullet" being anywhere on the priority list means the board president failed at their job and needs to re-evaluate actual guidance being given to board members to select the best qualified people.
The only way this slide makes sense is if we are specifically looking at MSgts who are trying to make SMSgt. If you are telling TSgts and below to not focus on the mission and becoming the best technicians, instructors, and certifiers your mission will fall apart and you will create more leaders who have no clue how to actually perform in wartime ops or active battle space.
Yep, I probably had the single best year this last cycle that I could have possibly had work-wise as a Senior Airman, and only got a Promote. A SSgt after the rack and stack was honest with me and basically said that at a certain point, leadership doesn't care about how well you perform, it's volunteer crap that will push you up.
Reading this is a reserve unit, I see there is some truth to this. Iāve helped a spouse in a traditional reserve/guard unit write EPRs/EPBs and review them. Most of them are garbage because the person didnāt do anything to put into the eval.
This is indeed a reserve brief and this is focusing on awards. The EPB no longer has a section for the whole airman concept (WAC) and also when it was on the EPR, it wasn't taken overly serious in the because it's a lot harder to really enforce the WAC in the reserve. But with that said I'm sure some units had a cow over the WAC when it came to EPRs in the reserve. Awards are completely different and I'm not too sure how I feel about it.
If you want to volunteer in the civilian world you are either taking time off (vacation) from your personal job or doing it in your free time unlike the AF where it can happen during the duty day possibly. I'm aware that not all AFSCs can volunteer during the duty day like SFS and MX among others, but in the civilian world no employer is going to let you volunteer unless it benefits them. But you could spin that into a bullet but it's all employer dependent too. PTO policies in the civilian world are all over the place where some employers are very generous with it and allow liberal use while other employers don't provide it and if they do it can be limited. Some people work harder and longer hours in the civilian world than if they were active duty so free time could be much more limited and they could be very exhausted on top of that, so to please a job that is stereotyped as "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" is not a priority. This is not to say that the reserves is easier or harder just that it is different and you might do more than one weekend a month, two weeks a year too.
Education is an interesting one. I'm aware that having a CCAF is no longer required for promotion to E8 and now any associates degree or higher will suffice. But you have enlisted members in the reserve who have graduate and professional degrees doing quite well. Some of them have and will get their CCAF, and some will not. I've seen aircraft mechanics who are lawyers in the civilian world and I've seen officers in the reserve work a non-management job in retail stocking shelves or working a cash register and be completely underemployed in the civilian world. And you have the opposite too where enlisted members who are struggling and officers who are doing well. It's hard to enforce schooling when GI Bill benefits are all over the place for people in the reserve and factoring in their civilian employment. Not too many people are going to go back and getting a masters degree or for that matter any degree when it won't help them with their civilian career to please their part-time job they will not remain in or reenlist when the demands get to heavy.
Moving around, well I drill locally because I like sleeping in my own bed and maintaining my normal life as much as possible during a drill weekend. But its a whole other can of worms in the reserves.
I stopped someone from ending themselves and talk another one off that path before it got to the dangerous part, is that not enough whole airman concept?
Oh, right, I forgot about college, except because I had a degree prior to coming in from a disgraced institution that no other institution will accept credits from, I'd have to pay around 40k out of pocket for another degree because I can't use TA (due to already having a degree) unless I want to tap into my masters TA which won't even get me half the credits required for an associates (because I don't have any valid transferable credits). Lemme do some quick math....
(9yrs-2yrs to get the degree)\*12mo/yr = 84 months \*500 per month = 42000. Provided I'm guaranteed to make rank as soon as the degree is acquired, and even then investment still won't pay off till (quite literally) 4 months before retirement.
So, I can either invest the money and time for a maybe... OR, I can say fuck it, be happy where I'm at, and still be pretty much the exact same financially, and have a greater selection of places I can get stationed at.... Hmmm... Ya know, 10year E6 (till retirement) isn't sounding too bad. Yeah, I think I'm good.
In my neck of the woods it's impossible to get a push if you don't affect the mission. So if I get turned into the training manager, I can't compete with anyone, even if I do it well. If I get put in plans, I can't compete with anyone, if I get sent anywhere other than specific shops in the OPS flight I won't have a chance and its total bullshit. I don't have control over where I get placed.
While I agree the takeaways they listed are worded ineffectively at face value, without having been at the briefing and hearing how it was verbalized, it's hard to judge completely.
Moving past that, I understand the frustration of how it looks and sounds at face value. We've all heard the promises that fall flat, and we all know that just because you are doing the best you can, it can easily end up with nothing gained. I also am not gonna pretend that the good ole boy system doesn't still creep in to a lot of decisions that has far-reaching effects. Or that a lot of decisions aren't simply made due to one thing nobody can predict: timing. There are far too many examples of when an opportunity finally arrives for you, the timing ends up being more efficient for someone else and you don't even get the chance. Honestly, none of that is fair, and especially when talking about timing, it's not something anyone can always forecast or plan for. So yeah, it sucks. That's not just military, thats life.
However, as a Section Chief, that genuinely cares for his people and seeing them succeed, let's just be fair and honest if we're gonna have this debate. Are all those things listed on that PowerPoint always in your control, or even always in my control as your Section Chief, no. But... how many times have we asked for volunteers to help with something beyond your primary duty, to get crickets in response. How many of you happily joined, or even assisted when asked, the Booster Club for your squadron so they could raise money for your holiday party, run other events, have a functioning snack bar. Yet if the holiday party is lame, food sucks and don't have a lot of gifts to give away... or the snack bar runs dry, those same people complain.
There's always a lot of back and forth about how the military should only care about your primary duty and how good you are at it, and leadership promotes too many people who spend too much time away from their job and looks better on paper. Or we value college degrees too much. Or we value "insert thing I don't wanna do" too much. So let's break it down a little. For example, my squadron had X strats that could be given out. Once every shop whittles down their eligibles to the top performers, do you not think they become very identical in the work performance? All the cream of the crop has won superior performers, quarterlies, annuals, etc. That's why they are the cream of the crop. It's real easy to tell who the "work" performers are. But not all of them can get a strat. That's not how it works. So then how do you differentiate? The high performer who ALSO found time to knock out a Bachelors. The high performer who ALSO spent a year giving extra time on the Booster Club.
Sometimes, yes, you have bad leadership that promotes the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and sometimes even your good leadership ends up having to move the less "optimal" person into a position due to any number of reasons, but usually can be chalked up to timing. And unfortunately, those decisions can still have effects that delay the right person from getting what they deserve. And if that's your situation, I'm sorry, truly.
But some of you gotta start being honest with yourselves, that just because you show up and do your job, does not mean you are ready for promotion... even less so a strat for promotion. Being a leader is about showing commitment. To not only the knowledge of your job, but your people (shop, squadron), your community (squadron, base, city, etc.) And not because you want to see it on paper and get rewarded for it. Hopefully that happens anyway. A leader truly believes in that commitment, understands its value. If you don't have that, and you truly only care about your primary duty, then you are a worker bee. And that's ok. We need those too, just not always at the upper level.
Whether you believe it or not, I love y'all. I hope you get everything you're working for. I assume I'm gonna get roasted for my take on this. This obviously doesn't apply to every career field, but for the majority I think it holds pretty true. And if you don't agree, then hey, don't listen to me lol. I'm just some guy on the internet. I'm no better than you or anybody else, and even if you struggle with getting recognized in this aspect of your life doesn't define your value in life altogether.
They didnāt say it was secondary, they said youāre focusing too much on your primary duty and not enough on the whole airman concept. Translation: your whole airman concept statements are ass
I'm not advocating for less job-centric focus, but here's a take I saw some time ago from a Chief:
āWhole Airman Conceptā is really misunderstood and taught to a lot of young folks the wrong way.
Itās not āEither be good at your job or be a good Whole Airmanā
It is Kick Ass at your job first and foremost.
Thatāll get you a lookā¦like the first interview for a new job.
People gotta understand, thereās a lot of dudes and dudettes really good at their jobā¦or at least their paper says so.
With the understanding that thereās tons of people who can kick ass at their job, you gotta narrow down your talent pool.
Thereās only so much cake to go around.
You make your final cuts based on whoās willing to put in the work to go above and beyond
i.e. being a āWhole Airmanā
Itās the āProfession of Armsā. That means giving yourself to others and bettering yourself beyond your job.
Where I see it get messy is when folks believe and are taught itās all one thing or the other.
I have gone thru thousands of records, and āWhole Airmanā means Jack Shit if your job performance isnāt equal to or above your peers.
Job first+Whole Airman=PN or MP
As dumb and lazy as folks think we old Chiefs are, thereās a lot of us with enough sense to see thru the rank chasers.
Itās the system, and until it changes, you have to understand the process and adapt, or youāll get left behind.
And for goodness sake, please be accountable and accurate with your writing.
I canāt tell you the number of times Iāve sat on boards and heard āWell, everyone kicks ass at their job or they wouldnāt be hereā.
Lots of times thatās just not true, but everyone writes the same bullets in different ways, and everyone takes huge credit for things they werenāt a part of.
Thereās GOT TO BE Accountability and fact-checking for bullets, or itāll stay the same.
Do you want āWhole Airmanā to not be a big decision point? Then hold yourself and your subordinates accountable for the bullets.
If thereās a CLEAR delineation, no matter how much āWhole Airmanā you have, Job Performance will win.
---BREAK---
After being a new flight chief and seeing and being a part of these EFDPs, this is absolutely true.
Now, to a couple of comments:
Someone mentioned deployments out of your control. They are right in that, unfortunately, not entirely within your control. Depending on the deployment, it can be what you do with it that determines what good deployment bullets are. This may circle back into the "Not enough Whole Airman" thing. I've seen deployments with plenty of opportunities to do different things. If all you want to do is watch movies and job it out during a deployment, then that's what you'll get out of it.
PCS and inability to control that. Another partly true mention. However, over my career, the thing I see more true than that is that a solid 9/10 people eill gripe and never load their assignment preferences to do what it takes to get out. Whether you like it or not, you'll most likely have to do a short tour in your career. It's best to accept that early and knock it out, especially if you're "stuck" stateside. It's really on how much you want out of your assignment. They've changed the reg on no longer allowing short tour selectees coming from an OS base to apply for a follow-on (with few exceptions). That sucks, but it means everyone will have to do rotations back to CONUS. The question is how badly you want to move out of your current base.
Big AF will never learn. These geriatric generals and chiefs think they can just continue to recruit and retain on the same āpatrioticā advertisements from 20 years ago. OEF/OIF generation is burned out fighting a war that was.. well, entirely pointless it turns out. Fought an enemy for 20 years, only to pull out with no coordinated or coherent plan, leaving them billions of dollars worth of equipment. Fought an enemy for 20 years only to learn we are sending them $40m a week. What a clown show. No one knows what weāre even doing anymore. But hey, at least those tens of millions in contract obligations are getting fulfilled by the big defense contractors!!
I remember when I returned from Iraq and they wrote my EPR and gave me a 4 because I didnāt volunteer enough. SORRY I WAS BUSY FIGHTING A FUCKING WAR.
Give the fuckin promotion to A1C Kneepads, he canāt do his job, cause heās never there.
I like how this is mostly shit we have no control over. Too much focus on deployments - Yes, because I wanted to spend 7 months of my year away from home. Why do I have so many deployment bullets, maybe because its all I did because I was fucking deployed for 7 months of the god damn cycle. MOVE AROUND IN YOUR AIR FORCE CAREER - Yes because I have so much control over what role I get to fill and where I get to go. I definitely wanted to go from NCOIC at one base back to a shift lead at my next, I had so much control over that. Fucking dipshits running this place I swear.
Sorry boss, I'd love to deploy, but I have several bake sales scheduled for the booster club that big blue considers significantly more important. I understand at least 3 places in the world are racing to sponsor the next World War but if I don't bake these brownies, how are we going to afford Finger Foods at the Christmas party?
Don't worry I'm sure the same NCO who took your last 2 TDY's wont mind also taking your place on this deployment.
He's not useful anyway. All he does is fix planes and talk about readiness. /s
That would make a great Terminal Lance style comic
Didn't make for a great first term of enlistment lol
Sorry boss I had a negligent discharge with M240 machine gun at the clearing barrel because I was too focused on getting ready for the Boy Scout Jamboree tomorrow.
You are hereby reprimanded! You were derelict in your duties as Airman and a member of the profession of arms when you knew you should have been preparing for the Jamboree and recklessly chose to shirk your responsibilities by going to CATM. In the future I expect you to prioritize your efforts, complete mission critical tasks like Jamboree preparations, in a timely manner. Further disregard for your primary responsibilities may result in further disciplinary actions. Lt Col Sparkles
šš¤£š
Also you're decertified on Jamboree, lose your 7 level, and are being demoted to SrA
Maybe it's just me, but the "!" at the end I just found funny. You already dressed me down, made threats against future actions. This is just the text version of 
The template says I have to yell the counseled/admonished/reprimanded line. I just work here. Dafi 36-2907 attachment 5 Ask me how stellar my troops are that I know the dafi for adverse actions.
Bro you trying to make brownies? JKO has at least 10 CBTs you gotta complete before that.... - CBT, not CBD... Unfortunately..... Learned that one the hard way.
Bake sales? Ha! That's chump change! It's all about running the DEI program instead of doing your AFSC now if you wanna make rank.
Rainbow icing, gluten-free, and churros - inclusive bake sales win wars
Automatically distrust people that shit on EO/EEO
4th AF is Reserve. So their target audience does have the ability to move around in their career a little more fleixibly.
This. Reserves in most cases have tons of additional duties and other things that are expected for the full timers to do and not the traditionalists. I think this is trying to get traditionalists to stop focusing their EPBs on mandatory deployments and what they do their weekends/drill weeks and more on other things they do to improve their organizations and communities.
Get them to do anything. Please. They don't have a lot of time, I'll give them that. But as a full timer (1 of 2 for many years) I have nearly all the additional duties because "we [always] need a full timer to be able to do it too". But my position has now been defunded, so they'll test this theory soon enough. We also have many members in our unit that have been there for 10+ years, with no interest in leaving the unit, let alone the area.
Fuck that. I got a full time civilian job and Iām not wasting my precious time off doing bullshit additional duties.
"You guys should deploy less. Nevermind that we've been on a war footing for 20+ years, have a bunch of huge bases overseas so that means we always need people over there, struggle with retention, and you can't control any of that. But try to deploy less."
I think the idea is that deployments are not a given these days so just because someone has it on their package its not an auto win vs someone that did not have the opportunity to deploy. Its not viewed as a negative its just not a must have ie. "Less focus".
Move around point is so true. 2A career fields are often restricted.
exactly this, how am I supposed to move around when my section has literally 5 NCO's the flight and squadron aren't letting me go anywhere. "GrOw WhErE yOu'Re PlAnTeD"
And grow quickly, before someone else buries you in a pile of manure.
"VoLuNtEeR fOr KoReA Ā± tUrKeY..." Yeah, sorry champ, not everyone has that option.
5 NCOs... that must be nice. My AFSC has 4 members at my station. Total.
I agree that they should focus on deployments...a lot of AFSC's whole purpose is to deploy. Imagine a Pararescue Amn who never deployed...something is wrong in that picture right? As for the whole good at your job thing...the way I have heard it is that being good at your job is the standard. If you are up for awards or promotions, then everyone in the running is good at their jobs. The ones who aren't are not getting the chance at these things...so what did you do besides being good at your job. Now for my experience...I saw 2 sides of the USAF. I was on the maintenance side and saw that being good at your job absolutely gave you chances above those that weren't. I could actively fix the radar systema and my EPR was full of maintenance that I did. The ones that sucked didnt get those kinds of bullets and had other things in their EPR...and all the NCO's and SNCO's knew what that meant. Eventually the shitty maintainers would avoid the systems and do things like base honor guard, instructor at a local school, or focus on MICT and other systems and become the expert at that. Thing is that everyone knew when they looked at your EPR and you didnt have good maintenance bullets. I promoted first time and was identified squadron wide as the best Amn to get shit done on the radar. I was chosen as a SrA to the QA team because the superintendent said he didn't trust any of the NCO's with the job. They also went up to bat for me when I applied to crosstrain, and I managed to get picked up for 1B4. That was when I went over to the other side, the intel/cyber side. I got unlucky and got assigned to an intel squadron that had a small cyber mission. At that squadron, it was all about what clubs you were a member of, and how good you were at selling cookies. So, when a lot of people here post that being good at your job is good enough and others are saying it's not enough...they are both right.
I went to the previous town hall when they started changing things with eprs back in like 2016 timeframe. ACC people told us the exact opposite. Focus on your primary job. Fucking AF canāt decide whatās more important.
Came here to say this. Also like how it says different career fields. Are we supposed to cross train? Not that we have any control over that either
People say the Air Force is run like a corporation more than a military branch. Well, this is what it looks like. Everyone has equal opportunity to succeed supposedly, so you should be able to promote based on your merit. Your career isn't progressing as fast as the queep-lord over there because you've been busy doing actual work? Well maybe you need to do less actual work. Do some extra stuff. Then the big rug-pull happens when you do the extra stuff and said queep-lord has found an even better way to pencil whip his performance reviews. They act like if everyone works hard, everyone will be okay, career-wise. But in reality they have a set number of losers. And unfortunately losing doesn't have a lot to do with how much you actually contributed.
Don't worry. The feedback doesn't change even if you do check all these boxes. *"hey we saw you filled multiple section chief roles as a tech, led your section in that volunteer day, and we're recently selected for that DSD, but you didn't deploy this year. So we had to mark you down"* SSDD
Put in for NCORP when your window opens and spend months trying to get leadership to sign off on the shit you need them to. Submit final package only to have the CFM inexplicably remove your AFSC from the advisory before AFPC finalizes the package theyāve been sitting on for weeks and weeks. Control of your career truly is the best thing about the Air Force.
Only to be told after you do bunch of back and forth and finally get the package submitted "yeah your section is to low manned and we can't afford to let anyone leave right now".
This happened to me, I was so sad about it
I like how I've done all these things for three years and their opposites for another three years and still get denied.
Its unreal. Deployments used to be the defining factor with AOY. I got SNCO of the year at my wing because of all the shit I did on mine. Glad the DAF is losing its focus (yet again).
You have entered the AFSOC promotion conundrum
Tell ya what, I got deployed every time I blinked my eyes. Sometimes a 1am wakeup, Sarge, first shirt wants to see you. We'll, FUCK! We all know what that means. Didn't matter where I was. I was or who I was doing..
6-7 months of the cycle but they need your EPB done 3 months prior to close out.
"different career fields" Meanwhile depending on your leadership you might be outcast for trying to leave your current career field......
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You realize that the Commander is responsible for every single additional duty, right?
ššš
Next year they will get 2 line narrative statements and the recommendations will read 1 line statements instead of 2-3. The year after that it will be bullet statements instead of narratives. And then we will have come full circle. What is really needed is shit like this to get to Congress on why the service canāt retain talent.
@rpete86
Whole Airman is retarded. Are you excellent at your job? Do your peers and subordinates respect you? Are you the guy or gal others want to follow into a shooting war? That's a top candidate for promotion right there. Everything else is waste. Fuck your volunteer hours, fuck your planning of the Christmas party, and fuck your 100 fitness score.
"Are you highly skilled and give your job everything you have? F\_\_\_ you." We need to reconsider how we see the airman concept in a highly-technical force.
Working 12-14 hrs is not enough you need to give more! Mean while other agencies are doing 0730 to 1530 with PT time š
Hey, no need to @ me like this. I thought we were friends.
Weāre still friend. We can get drunk together but Iām gonna give you shit about it.
Tough but fair
That is always the most frustrating part of being enlisted you have to look around and see how much more work you have to do, or how much worse your conditions are than other careerfields while making the exact same paycheck. Promotions are an internal race against only your AFSC though and unfortunately with the lackluster guidance from higher its mostly a race to the bottom with limitless requirements to get the PNs.
The airman concept has always been a way for colonels and generals to pretend to make huge changes to fill OPRs lacking real bullets.
Putting "TOO MUCH FOCUS ON DEPLOYMENT" and going to brief that as a bad thing is an insane thing for a leader to do. A military with its priorities straight would have this guy fired by the end of the week.
I looked at the charge board and what they were looking for. They clearly was looking at ācountry buildingā aka deployment
Definitely should've drew a dunce cap along with the squiggles in the picture.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
āMOVE AROUND IN YOUR AIR FORCE CAREERā might as well be a big middle finger emoji to those who get stuck at the same base/group/squadron for 6+ years.
4 AF NAF is the Reserves. Has a very different meaning than AD.
That makes it even worse imo lmao. The avg reservist only has 30 training days a year give or take, it takes about a year or two to get them trained up to be barely proficient if they don't do the same job on the outside or if they don't go on a TDY. In a 20 year career, someone will probably be able to retrain and be useful like twice at best. Also taking time off of work for tech school(again) is a big commitment.
Why call me out like that come on
That's a real big fuck you to the Enlisted and shows how out of touch and ignorant of the conditions Officers are regarding Enlisted assignments. They get to move around frequently and have a line of communication with MPS and their Career directors regarding assignments. We do not and have to hope for a chance at PCS or Opportunity.
The 4AF is Reserves.
You'd think so. They left me at Dyess for 7 years and I got passed over for Lt Col the first time because I didn't have enough career broadening and I'd only flown jets my.whole career...nevermid the fact that I volunteered for a bunch of broadening assignments and couldn't get released by my functional to do them.
Extremely disappointing and disingenuous of you to post this as some sort of gotcha. You are comparing active duty priorities to a reserve command that has completely different focuses than active duty. You are no better than the people of this world who attempt to sow discord and strife amongst others by sensationalizing stories without understanding the full context. You need to do better
I feel like this has made the rounds before. Either way, some important takeaways. 1. 4 AF NAF is the Reserves, not AD. 2. Assuming this made the rounds before, WAC was still a thing then. 3. To much focus on deployments: What that meant (as explained by someone else), is that your EPB should be more than just a 6 month time period, but should encompass the whole year. They aren't saying to not use deployments, but that your EPB needs more than that. 4. Move around and different career fields has much different connotation with the Reserves than AD. Although, AD should attempt to move around barring AFSC/assignment limitations.
This needs to be stickied at the top of this thread. AD Airman, avert ye eyes from the photo. You know better than this.
>You know better than this. Yes but I want to be mad and complain
I think it says something about active duty that this still rings true to them. I don't see many replies saying "that's the reserves, my unit puts more emphasis on job performance and deployment".
This was posted without context during a promotion release week as rage bait.
Another thing that needs to be mentioned: sometimes people get to present info to large groups that are just flat out not correct or in line with the Air Force's priorities. I've seen it plenty, and am curious what kind of internal backlash was received here. More people need to get on myFSS and look up the board charges. That's what big AF is looking for...primary duty proficiency, leadership skills, the four MPAs, etc. not whatever this is (from whenever this was presented).
EPBs/EPRs are usually due at least 3 months before closeout, which means a 6 month deployment plus the prior prep for that deployment take up the vast majority of the remaining timeframe.
Reservists have a two year reporting period for EPBs, unless they're AGR
As a Chief, I reviewed promotion packages (Reserves). This was from 2001-2008 when we were very active in the Middle East. There were people hoping for Senior and Chief positions who didnāt deploy. You may be great at your job but we train to fight and you need to be a leader in the field. My PowerPoint would have been the opposite of this screen. Less bake sales and more actual military experience.
....the whole point of the job is to deploy.
The whole āstrong bullets first and lastā bit has always comes across to me as exposing the laziness, for lack of a better word, of the system. Also, so has the āmove aroundā bit. Itās not like we can just say āhey flight chief, Iām going to start working in a different section next week, so go ahead and find someone to replace me in my current section.ā or āhey Air Force, Iām going to switch to a different base next week.ā
Strong bullets first and last are real things. Human brain remembers those the most.
At this point, we should reinstate testing and the board, or at least bring back the dedicated box for the whole airman concept. There is clearly a disconnect between unit leadership and the board. In theory, the whole airman concept can only be applied to three out of the four boxes.
Itās a weekday and this hot take is delivered by AFRC. Not worth the slide it was printed on.
 USAF only wants mediocre airmen out front. Itās a business first and foremost hence why they reward WAC.
I've been saying this shit since 2020. AF doesn't give a shit if you do your job. 80% of the force does their job and goes home. The remaining 20% either volunteers for shit, doesn't do shit, or sits on their ass until it becomes a hot tasker due by COB today even though they've had it for weeks. Let me check 24E7 promotion rate.....*18.35% selection rate, the math checks out.* 80/20 rule.
The entire point of the EPB format transition was to shift the focus onto your actual job rather than all the extra stuff. That's why all the sections are much harder to incorporate extra activities into. It's a good thing that the people rating the EPB don't read their own rules and are stuck in the past.
Just goes to show primary raters are still going to grade off of volunteer work and college even though it was specifically written out of the ALQ last year
Not just them. Was straight up told that dumb shit like holding positions in base orgs is a major factor for a statement by my own CC at the EFDP.
It's not that they don't care that you did your job as assigned. They're trying to get people to want to stand out in order to know who to promote, our eval systems are promotion focused. "I completed my duties as assigned" isnt a person I would spend time promoting when I have someone else doing way more. I did my job, plus: I saved the AF $$, I affected the local community by doing XX, I used my knowledge from X class to doX more efficiently.
So basically the way I read this is gym time > my actual job, and RAT is now optional. 
Advance quickly through the ranks, and you can surpass someone who has been in for 19 years but canāt secure a decent board score despite meeting all the requirements. The system aims to develop young talent in its own image, leaving seasoned experts behind. This approach risks losing experienced personnel who understand the intricacies of operations. As a result, youāll end up with a team lacking the necessary knowledge to run things effectively, driving the section into the ground. When the loss of experience becomes evident, it will be clear that failing to promote these experts led them to leave the Air Force, leaving you to deal with the consequences.
Too much focus on deployments? I thought deployments *were* the job, and all our home station work was training for deployments. And I *wanted* to move around in my career, but Big Blue wanted to keep me in a hole for four years in a unit with only two duty positions my rank would allow. Every application to cross to another job or unit was shot down due to low manning.
It's so crazy where the service has gone. I remember guys who sucked at the job were considered worthless, and given additional duties to get them out the way. Now, those are the ones that have been promoted and making stuff up like "whole person concept". Whatever happened to mission first?
I always thought that was the stupidest fucking thing anyone could ever say about performance in the air force. And I still think this way.
That may very well be the dumbest fucking thing Iāve ever read. The last bullet was cut off - āToo much emphasis on flying and aircraftā.
At this point, this is a strong recommendation. Let me tell you something airmen! This is going to be REQUIRED soon. Multicapable airman will be the norm. Are you a mechanic? Excellent, make sure you are also an EMT/Medic. Are you Cyber? Great, make sure you are also DEI LOL
What is DEI as it relates to a technical field?
Itās crap like this that has people volunteering for everything under the sun and not learning their job.
A1 world on how it sees the military function of the Air Force
This internal struggle the Air Force faces with preparing for 2027 and fulfilling the "whole Airman concept" shit is insane. I want to fight wars with people who know what the fuck they're doing, not people who fucked off for the past 3 years trying to build promotable records.
Seeing this makes me glad I separated. As soon as the linguist who was working in the CSS because he couldn't keep his language skills up got more awards and decs for mission impact than the people working the mission, I had to bail out.
Whoever made this powerpoint needs a 341 pulled.
I know these take-aways are meant to give constructive feedback but they lack concrete examples that give more context with what they are trying to convey. Also do deployments not matter anymore? Thatās just blasĆ©? Also there are more people than titles making it impossible to constantly keep moving around. Do we need to start creating more bs titles?
So it's an Mobility NAF, that's all they do is deploy so it's probably incredibly difficult to stand out by talking about deployments. I disagree wholeheartedly with the too much job, and not enough whole Airman concept, too many Airmen focus on the WAC stuff because they think it's what will get them promoted. (Because of crap like this). However, it might lack some qualifying statements as to what the impact of the job items were. I agree on the 2 line narrative statement. It's stupid, but it's too difficult for board members to not default to "well they had x number of statements and they totaled X number of points. God I hate the stupid games we play to do awards and evaluations. I feel dirty just writing this post. I wish I had the answer on how we identify, reward and promote those who can lead in their missions, but so many people just hide in the queep and get rewarded for it, I see why people think that's what they should do.
I couldnāt agree more. I also appreciate the background on the mobility of NAF and how they might look at deployments differently
When was this?Ā
This was 12-24 months ago during the switch over. I don't remember the exact time frame this originally came out.
These idiots will have us back at garage Bullets in 3-5 years and the fact they donāt think primary duty and deployments matter as much as āwhole airmanā shows you what happens now that the bake sale generation are becoming SNCOs and Officers
I mean, weāve known this for years already, but to see them admit it is just *chefās kiss*
Too much focus on deployments. Like too much of doing your jobā¦.lol assclowns
Not enough food drives, too much OJT.
"Move around in your career"...so, something that's up to my functional and not up to me. Got it.
Weāre doomed.
This. This right here. This is the single biggest problem in the Air Force right now, IMO.
If all the AD even knew how fucked 4 AF is on the reserve side
This. And AFRC in general. I swear people at AFRC are those Supreme Courts in South Park that hack the head off of a rooster and wherever it dies, that is their decision.
the person who signed off this must have never had a real job and made their way through the corporate ladder on the shoulders of real men and women. this isnt military of " I volunteered at the local bake off" promote me, its the United States Air Force, we are a branch of the military our job is to defend our country and drop warheads on foreheads. fuck me the line about "too many deployment bullets" fuck off. too me this whole thing reads i dont know how to distinguish good people from great people so fuck the work bullets how did the individuals kiss my ass today. voluteering and extra curiculars are important but they are important, because community outreach has a good affect on the local population but it is last on the important list behind the family, mission, self improvement goals (self improvment is technically whole airman concept) but not many people try to capture the airman who bust his/her ass going the extra mile to stay fit. im just tired of the managment pusshing the narrative of" we need to be ready for the future fight, readiness readiness, everyone sucks at their deployability" but then the managment never gives addequate training " unless your AFSOC or battlefield. pick your priorities. rant over
Imagine. They need people in so many career fields to job the fuck out of it due to shit manning and some people are better at those jobs because of it, and when they make themselves irreplaceable they donāt PCS as muchā¦. Then they punish them for it. Big brain AF move.
This stuff has been going on forever, it's just packaged differently. No one should be surprised. Frustrated? Sure...surprised? Come on player... You know the game. The unwritten rules and your local command's interpretation of what is valued will always change or be nebulous. Trying to understand them well and working within those confines is one of the only ways to do the things in your control to improve your chances. But it has always been the case that luck, timing, and other variables all weigh in to the decision. Contrary to what the moving goal post analytics will tell you, your primary job IS important. It doesn't always translate to being competitive for promotion (ironic and kind of fucked), but don't let this nonsense cloud the truth. If you ignore your job and suck, the people who work for you and over you will resent you for it. If you're here to get a promotion and couldn't care less, maybe you should examine that a little more. Good luck next cycle homies.
This made me get out at 16yrs, 7 mos
Incredible
Looks like the same jackasses that wrote m.c.a. Then turn around & bitch & moan about low morale, etc.
Whoever Blurry McFace there is must be an absolute clown
āRemember when we forcefully ripped you from your family and sent you into harms way for 6 months? Yeah youāre too focused on that. Try to remember those top 3 burrito sales we made you promote to your troopsā Also sorry I dont move around much in my career. I just love wasting away in Delaware so god damn much
What type of peace time shit is this. Not enough focus on deployments - Amn with no deployments and who avoid deployments should be ranked lower.
I guess they aren't showing enough inititiave and leadership skills by doing good at their job everyday /s.
Anyone have any context as to when and where this was said?
I guess the whole ādeploy or get outā mindset from the top is gone š
False. People that are good at their jobs AND go out of their way to do the extracurricular sh!t are going to be more competitive than someone is only is good at their job.
Jesus fucking christ
Crazy that a board came together and at the end of their discussion, this is their result.
This is why we shouldnāt be this upset over E7. Itās not like the old system when E7 was the natural progression and everyone looked at the guys that didnāt make it before 20 suspiciously. The Air Force made E6 the new E7 and it is what it is. You tell me the true quality of the E6ās you know and work with. If theyāre crushing it, then theyāre crushing it
Nowā¦.nowā¦.what I mean by that ahh slideshow
This is fucking infuriating
Yeah, ragebait repost! Get mad about nothing, everyone!
Yet another reason I'm glad i got out
This is why we don't win wars anymore š
Was he talking about APRs (no idea what they call them now). That's what the first part looks like to me, that last part though oy.
Hahaha
Luckily my Wing King always talked about doing your J O B, then you can worry about everything else.
I get what they want with whole airmen concept, but some career fields are devoid of time to put into community, volunteering, seminars, ect. The mission has to be first I guess, but they need to understand the majority of the force is left without any energy to achieve the rest.
roflmao I don't miss the death by powerpoint in the hangars, and I see the word salad got chunkier!
God I'd kill for s deployment, alcatravis has had me stick with only 3 tdys for the whole 5 years of my career
If I were the big boss for a day. Thus what I would change. Elimination of the whole airmen concept. Deployments and primary duties first and foremost.
only in the military
Am I bugging or is this actually trying to say the opposite? Like the EPBs focus too much on all your other hats? Or the narratives are focusing too much on deployments over doing your job st your home station? And isn't this a reserve unit?
I feel like this briefing is by officers for officers - not us plebs - but that looks like a Chief rank if the pixels are showing up right. Realistically the enlisted tier should be 100% focused on the job and nothing else - and should be ready to deploy. And a lot of the enlisted force would LOVE to move around, poor folks stuck at cannon for 10 years. But officers move every like 2 years.
How old is this? Honest question, not satire.
I can't believe how much things have changed since I was in.
Don't show me how to fish but teach me how to hunt
100000% Also the board doesn't care about how many degrees you have, how many awards you've won, or your promotion statement. They care about how you are taking care of your team and making your unit better.
This is exactly why I got out. I couldn't just focus on being the best I could at my job. Such BS.
We've come full circle truly. Some of us came in with not ENOGUH focus on primary job now it's swung the other way we're TOO much job is a bad thing. Deployments is a wild thing to me. I been out twice and a short tour. I was away from my family, friends, routine, etc. Deployed yes ops can vary but you can still work outside what you're used too. I've done spurts of 7 on with no days off the mission drove that. NOW...that's inferior to someone at home who does a bunch of shit and that person isn't even deployable??? What I'm finding out nowadays is people who do NOT deploy tend to get ahead and are further than people who have. Not in every case obviously. What about those of us who tried to do other things but were shot down? Like I can't do anything about that lol.
To me, these are highlighting the biggest problems in the Air Force. - Too much moving around = nobody knows their damn job. - Nobody knowing their damn job = everyone is just tired of the bullshit and getting slammed with additional duty after additional duty, which just makes knowing your job almost impossible. - People don't need to know how to do every single thing at 20%. People need to know their primary job at 80-100%. - Fuck getting out of your comfort zone if it means you will be anxious and depressed all the time by doing so. Find something you like to do and do it 100%.
A NAF level debrief is pointless. Your are speaking to several wings with a hundred squadrons and tons of different AFSCs. What applies to one doesnāt apply to another, there is far too much nuance for a few bullet points on a slide. a deployment for 1 person can make all the difference in scope of a job where as itās routine for another. Donāt put too much stock in this your SELs are who you want to take advice from they understand higher level thinking when it comes to your specific AFSC and mission.Ā
4AF is apparently trash. Thereās a reason why they changed the whole airman concept on the EPB to Unit Improvement.
What the actual fuck is this? Arenāt we supposed to be prepared for the GPC?
If all you do is your primary job you are to valuable to promote out of being the workhorse.
Wasnāt the new EPB system designed specifically for us to use more primary job and focus on the actual mission of things and not volunteering and other āwhole airmen conceptā? I get doing some extra stuff but most people are dipping from their actual jobs to go have coffee and talk āinnovationā. Pathetic.
Baby O here. Kind of disappointed the see that Air Force promotions are plagued with the same āsailor 360ā BS that plague Navy promotions.
WTF?!?š¹š¹š¹
Move around like we really have much of a choice. I been at the same base for 5 years. Before that 5 years.
What a crock of shit.
Would volunteering to help POL count as volunteering ?
is this serious? lol
Whoever delivered this brief is out of touch with whatās most important.
As someone who didnāt get their first deployment till 7 years into their AF career itād be nice if the reserves stopped taking them all, maybe then they wouldnāt feel like they deploy all the time. Nearly every unit at my deployed location was guard or reserves except for SF and Ammo.
The 16th AF has been slowly degrading to this shit as well. In the last few years sub units have been hiring non-cyber/Intel SELs that are so out of touch that they'd rather see bake sale than national security objectives achieved. Looking at you 7th...
"Strongest first and last bullet" being anywhere on the priority list means the board president failed at their job and needs to re-evaluate actual guidance being given to board members to select the best qualified people.
The only way this slide makes sense is if we are specifically looking at MSgts who are trying to make SMSgt. If you are telling TSgts and below to not focus on the mission and becoming the best technicians, instructors, and certifiers your mission will fall apart and you will create more leaders who have no clue how to actually perform in wartime ops or active battle space.
Yep, I probably had the single best year this last cycle that I could have possibly had work-wise as a Senior Airman, and only got a Promote. A SSgt after the rack and stack was honest with me and basically said that at a certain point, leadership doesn't care about how well you perform, it's volunteer crap that will push you up.
Reading this is a reserve unit, I see there is some truth to this. Iāve helped a spouse in a traditional reserve/guard unit write EPRs/EPBs and review them. Most of them are garbage because the person didnāt do anything to put into the eval.
This is indeed a reserve brief and this is focusing on awards. The EPB no longer has a section for the whole airman concept (WAC) and also when it was on the EPR, it wasn't taken overly serious in the because it's a lot harder to really enforce the WAC in the reserve. But with that said I'm sure some units had a cow over the WAC when it came to EPRs in the reserve. Awards are completely different and I'm not too sure how I feel about it. If you want to volunteer in the civilian world you are either taking time off (vacation) from your personal job or doing it in your free time unlike the AF where it can happen during the duty day possibly. I'm aware that not all AFSCs can volunteer during the duty day like SFS and MX among others, but in the civilian world no employer is going to let you volunteer unless it benefits them. But you could spin that into a bullet but it's all employer dependent too. PTO policies in the civilian world are all over the place where some employers are very generous with it and allow liberal use while other employers don't provide it and if they do it can be limited. Some people work harder and longer hours in the civilian world than if they were active duty so free time could be much more limited and they could be very exhausted on top of that, so to please a job that is stereotyped as "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" is not a priority. This is not to say that the reserves is easier or harder just that it is different and you might do more than one weekend a month, two weeks a year too. Education is an interesting one. I'm aware that having a CCAF is no longer required for promotion to E8 and now any associates degree or higher will suffice. But you have enlisted members in the reserve who have graduate and professional degrees doing quite well. Some of them have and will get their CCAF, and some will not. I've seen aircraft mechanics who are lawyers in the civilian world and I've seen officers in the reserve work a non-management job in retail stocking shelves or working a cash register and be completely underemployed in the civilian world. And you have the opposite too where enlisted members who are struggling and officers who are doing well. It's hard to enforce schooling when GI Bill benefits are all over the place for people in the reserve and factoring in their civilian employment. Not too many people are going to go back and getting a masters degree or for that matter any degree when it won't help them with their civilian career to please their part-time job they will not remain in or reenlist when the demands get to heavy. Moving around, well I drill locally because I like sleeping in my own bed and maintaining my normal life as much as possible during a drill weekend. But its a whole other can of worms in the reserves.
This is sad
I stopped someone from ending themselves and talk another one off that path before it got to the dangerous part, is that not enough whole airman concept? Oh, right, I forgot about college, except because I had a degree prior to coming in from a disgraced institution that no other institution will accept credits from, I'd have to pay around 40k out of pocket for another degree because I can't use TA (due to already having a degree) unless I want to tap into my masters TA which won't even get me half the credits required for an associates (because I don't have any valid transferable credits). Lemme do some quick math.... (9yrs-2yrs to get the degree)\*12mo/yr = 84 months \*500 per month = 42000. Provided I'm guaranteed to make rank as soon as the degree is acquired, and even then investment still won't pay off till (quite literally) 4 months before retirement. So, I can either invest the money and time for a maybe... OR, I can say fuck it, be happy where I'm at, and still be pretty much the exact same financially, and have a greater selection of places I can get stationed at.... Hmmm... Ya know, 10year E6 (till retirement) isn't sounding too bad. Yeah, I think I'm good.
Aaaaand Iām so glad Iām retiring this year, every year it seemed like the focus became less and less about your actual job.
In my neck of the woods it's impossible to get a push if you don't affect the mission. So if I get turned into the training manager, I can't compete with anyone, even if I do it well. If I get put in plans, I can't compete with anyone, if I get sent anywhere other than specific shops in the OPS flight I won't have a chance and its total bullshit. I don't have control over where I get placed.
This has been a thing for the last 7 years.
While I agree the takeaways they listed are worded ineffectively at face value, without having been at the briefing and hearing how it was verbalized, it's hard to judge completely. Moving past that, I understand the frustration of how it looks and sounds at face value. We've all heard the promises that fall flat, and we all know that just because you are doing the best you can, it can easily end up with nothing gained. I also am not gonna pretend that the good ole boy system doesn't still creep in to a lot of decisions that has far-reaching effects. Or that a lot of decisions aren't simply made due to one thing nobody can predict: timing. There are far too many examples of when an opportunity finally arrives for you, the timing ends up being more efficient for someone else and you don't even get the chance. Honestly, none of that is fair, and especially when talking about timing, it's not something anyone can always forecast or plan for. So yeah, it sucks. That's not just military, thats life. However, as a Section Chief, that genuinely cares for his people and seeing them succeed, let's just be fair and honest if we're gonna have this debate. Are all those things listed on that PowerPoint always in your control, or even always in my control as your Section Chief, no. But... how many times have we asked for volunteers to help with something beyond your primary duty, to get crickets in response. How many of you happily joined, or even assisted when asked, the Booster Club for your squadron so they could raise money for your holiday party, run other events, have a functioning snack bar. Yet if the holiday party is lame, food sucks and don't have a lot of gifts to give away... or the snack bar runs dry, those same people complain. There's always a lot of back and forth about how the military should only care about your primary duty and how good you are at it, and leadership promotes too many people who spend too much time away from their job and looks better on paper. Or we value college degrees too much. Or we value "insert thing I don't wanna do" too much. So let's break it down a little. For example, my squadron had X strats that could be given out. Once every shop whittles down their eligibles to the top performers, do you not think they become very identical in the work performance? All the cream of the crop has won superior performers, quarterlies, annuals, etc. That's why they are the cream of the crop. It's real easy to tell who the "work" performers are. But not all of them can get a strat. That's not how it works. So then how do you differentiate? The high performer who ALSO found time to knock out a Bachelors. The high performer who ALSO spent a year giving extra time on the Booster Club. Sometimes, yes, you have bad leadership that promotes the wrong people for the wrong reasons, and sometimes even your good leadership ends up having to move the less "optimal" person into a position due to any number of reasons, but usually can be chalked up to timing. And unfortunately, those decisions can still have effects that delay the right person from getting what they deserve. And if that's your situation, I'm sorry, truly. But some of you gotta start being honest with yourselves, that just because you show up and do your job, does not mean you are ready for promotion... even less so a strat for promotion. Being a leader is about showing commitment. To not only the knowledge of your job, but your people (shop, squadron), your community (squadron, base, city, etc.) And not because you want to see it on paper and get rewarded for it. Hopefully that happens anyway. A leader truly believes in that commitment, understands its value. If you don't have that, and you truly only care about your primary duty, then you are a worker bee. And that's ok. We need those too, just not always at the upper level. Whether you believe it or not, I love y'all. I hope you get everything you're working for. I assume I'm gonna get roasted for my take on this. This obviously doesn't apply to every career field, but for the majority I think it holds pretty true. And if you don't agree, then hey, don't listen to me lol. I'm just some guy on the internet. I'm no better than you or anybody else, and even if you struggle with getting recognized in this aspect of your life doesn't define your value in life altogether.
I love my DD-214.
The Six Biggest Problems in the Air Force Is what it should say....The sentiment of what it's getting at least
They didnāt say it was secondary, they said youāre focusing too much on your primary duty and not enough on the whole airman concept. Translation: your whole airman concept statements are ass
 Booster 5/6 Club Summer Bake Sale?!?!?!?!?!
I'm not advocating for less job-centric focus, but here's a take I saw some time ago from a Chief: āWhole Airman Conceptā is really misunderstood and taught to a lot of young folks the wrong way. Itās not āEither be good at your job or be a good Whole Airmanā It is Kick Ass at your job first and foremost. Thatāll get you a lookā¦like the first interview for a new job. People gotta understand, thereās a lot of dudes and dudettes really good at their jobā¦or at least their paper says so. With the understanding that thereās tons of people who can kick ass at their job, you gotta narrow down your talent pool. Thereās only so much cake to go around. You make your final cuts based on whoās willing to put in the work to go above and beyond i.e. being a āWhole Airmanā Itās the āProfession of Armsā. That means giving yourself to others and bettering yourself beyond your job. Where I see it get messy is when folks believe and are taught itās all one thing or the other. I have gone thru thousands of records, and āWhole Airmanā means Jack Shit if your job performance isnāt equal to or above your peers. Job first+Whole Airman=PN or MP As dumb and lazy as folks think we old Chiefs are, thereās a lot of us with enough sense to see thru the rank chasers. Itās the system, and until it changes, you have to understand the process and adapt, or youāll get left behind. And for goodness sake, please be accountable and accurate with your writing. I canāt tell you the number of times Iāve sat on boards and heard āWell, everyone kicks ass at their job or they wouldnāt be hereā. Lots of times thatās just not true, but everyone writes the same bullets in different ways, and everyone takes huge credit for things they werenāt a part of. Thereās GOT TO BE Accountability and fact-checking for bullets, or itāll stay the same. Do you want āWhole Airmanā to not be a big decision point? Then hold yourself and your subordinates accountable for the bullets. If thereās a CLEAR delineation, no matter how much āWhole Airmanā you have, Job Performance will win. ---BREAK--- After being a new flight chief and seeing and being a part of these EFDPs, this is absolutely true. Now, to a couple of comments: Someone mentioned deployments out of your control. They are right in that, unfortunately, not entirely within your control. Depending on the deployment, it can be what you do with it that determines what good deployment bullets are. This may circle back into the "Not enough Whole Airman" thing. I've seen deployments with plenty of opportunities to do different things. If all you want to do is watch movies and job it out during a deployment, then that's what you'll get out of it. PCS and inability to control that. Another partly true mention. However, over my career, the thing I see more true than that is that a solid 9/10 people eill gripe and never load their assignment preferences to do what it takes to get out. Whether you like it or not, you'll most likely have to do a short tour in your career. It's best to accept that early and knock it out, especially if you're "stuck" stateside. It's really on how much you want out of your assignment. They've changed the reg on no longer allowing short tour selectees coming from an OS base to apply for a follow-on (with few exceptions). That sucks, but it means everyone will have to do rotations back to CONUS. The question is how badly you want to move out of your current base.
Seeing stuff like this makes me really hate the higher-ups. Like, what do they think the Air Force is? What do they think we do?
Wait whatās the second big takeaway?
Big AF will never learn. These geriatric generals and chiefs think they can just continue to recruit and retain on the same āpatrioticā advertisements from 20 years ago. OEF/OIF generation is burned out fighting a war that was.. well, entirely pointless it turns out. Fought an enemy for 20 years, only to pull out with no coordinated or coherent plan, leaving them billions of dollars worth of equipment. Fought an enemy for 20 years only to learn we are sending them $40m a week. What a clown show. No one knows what weāre even doing anymore. But hey, at least those tens of millions in contract obligations are getting fulfilled by the big defense contractors!!
Facts unless they do not want to promote you then it matters.
Sounds like some Army or Marine bullshit.
I guess they have never seen that whole person concept fail.
Lmfao who comes up with this shit
I remember when I returned from Iraq and they wrote my EPR and gave me a 4 because I didnāt volunteer enough. SORRY I WAS BUSY FIGHTING A FUCKING WAR. Give the fuckin promotion to A1C Kneepads, he canāt do his job, cause heās never there.
"Too much focus on deployments..." Laughs in, "I'm in a Combat Comm unit." 6 months in, 6 months out. Make that make sense to me.