A lot of my contacts over on Flickr have been asking about my lack of activity lately. Well..not a lot but enough to warrant a blog post. As some of you may know, I'm in the Air Force. Been in about 8 years now and hold the rank of SSgt. To promote to the next grade, I have to take what's called a WAPS test, which stands for Weighted Airman Promotion System. Its a point based system which derives points from how long you've been in the service, how long you've worn the current rank, the scores of your annual performance reports, and medals you have, as well as finally, a test based on Air Force and Career Field knowledge. The whole process is intended to pick the most worthy candidates to promote to the next grade. Last year, of all the eligible SSgts in the Air Force, 18% or about 7,000 out of about 40,000 was actually promoted. I, wasn't one of them.This year was my third year testing for the rank of TSgt, and I was determined to make the cut this year. So for the last few months, and especially in the recent weeks, I had hit the books especially hard to study for the knowledge portion of the test. The agony of the whole system is that it takes a long time to test everyone in the Air Force, to include the guys and gals serving overseas and Iraq, Afghanistan and other locales. Though I tested in February, it won't be till June before I even know what I scored, and whether or not I was selected. Adding to that, everyone isn't promoted at once. Those who are selected are given what's called a line number based on seniority. In the upcoming months from July until the end of the year and early next, they promote so many of those every month. The average promotee has about 12 years of service under his belt. I have 8. So if I was to promote, it wouldn't be till the end of the year.
Is it a perfect system? No, but no system is, and this one is the best we have for now. Anyway, come June I'll have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed. If not...well there is always next year.
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