Officer Promotion Timeline

For whatever reason officer promotion is a very taboo topic, which is why I am going to talk about it here.  As an enlisted guy there are tons of online calculators and mentors who can help you figure it out because it is more straight forward.  As an officer it is much more nebulous.  We don’t really have promotion dates, we have promotion boards.  Promotion to First Lieutenant and Captain are basically automatic, so I’m not even sure if they are really considered boards.  This year’s promotion opportunity for Major was 100%.  For Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel, there are Below-the-Zone promotion opportunities.  What does all of this mean?

I am still figuring out much of this myself, but as I do I plan to document my observations on this blog for your benefit.  Keep in mind I am not an official source and I am just a guy, so I could be getting this stuff wrong.  If I get something wrong please call me out so I can make it right, because my number 1 intent is to provide you with good information.

Service Dates

As an enlisted guy the promotion dates are driven by Time in Service (TIS) and Time in Grade (TIG).  The enlisted TIS is defined by the Total Active Federal Military Service Date (TAFMSD), which for most Airmen is the first day of Basic Military Training.  As a prior-enlisted officer this is the same date that defines your Pay Date for the “years served” category on the military pay chart.  Here is how it is different on an officer’s record:

• Total Federal Commissioned Service Date (TFCSD) – The date commissioned (e.g., the date you graduated OTS.)
• Total Active Federal Commissioned Service Date (TAFCSD) – The date you entered active commissioned service (e.g., the date you graduated OTS.)
• Date of Rank (DOR) – The effective date of your current rank.  As an OTS grad your 2d Lt DOR will also be the date you graduated OTS.

All of the above service dates can be found in your Virtual MPF, which is an online site you can use to check your official personnel records.  It is protected by military ID card so you will have to wait until then to log in.  To get to vMPF:

1. Log in to AFPC Secure (CAC required):  AFPC Secure Link
2. Click “vMPF”
3. Under “Most Popular Applications” on the left, click “Record Review/Update”
4. Under “Pages” on the left, click “Service”

Differences with ROTC Graduates

It is important to note that the above dates can look a little different for ROTC graduates.  An ROTC graduates’ TFCSD is still the date they commission, which is the day it is made official.  However, there may be a gap in time between when they commission and when they enter active commissioned service.  This can be a 1-2 month gap, in which case their TAFCSD will be two months after their TFCSD.  To account for this gap they put the DOR right in between the TFCSD and TAFCSD.  For example if the commission on 1 July and their active date is 1 September, their DOR will be 1 August.

Promotion Eligibility

Promotion Eligibility Requirement can be found in AFI 36-2501, Officer Promotions and Selective Continuation.  As of 7 December 2017 the promotion eligibility requirements are outlined in Attachment 2.  Here is a summary:

First Lieutenant

Eligibility for Promotion to First Lieutenant.  Second lieutenants on the Active Duty List (ADL) are eligible for promotion as soon as they have 24-months time-in-grade computed from their CGDOR as a second lieutenant.

I’m pretty sure CGDOR is Commissioned Grade DOR.  For an active duty Second Lieutenant who’s DOR is 2 June 2017, their First Lieutenant DOR would be 2 June 2019.

Captain

Eligibility for Promotion to Captain.  Promote IPZ first lieutenants on the ADL selected for promotion to captain after completing 24-months time-in-grade computed from their CGDOR as a first lieutenant, or upon the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness (PDUSD(P&R)) approval of the captain selection board report, whichever is later.

IPZ stands for In-the-Promotion Zone (I’ll talk about IPZ and BPZ below.)  The above First Lieutenant would promote to Captain on 2 June 2021.

Major Through Major General

Eligibility for Promotion to Major Through Major General.  Officers on the ADL are eligible if they meet the criteria established prior to each board by the SECAF or designated representative.

These are the grades where the actual boards start.  We don’t need to know a lot about this right now, but just know that for each AFSC you will need to stay up to date on what the timelines and requirements are for these grades.  You may hear about something called a “PRF” or Promotion Recommendation Form.  As you are getting ready for your promotion board your commander will create a PRF for you.  As far as I understand it at this time, the PRF is what the promotion board will use to grade your package during the promotion board.  Again, as of this date we won’t have to worry about PRFs until we are preparing for our Major board.

Here is some good information from a comment below.  Thank you for your contribution.

I have something to add for Maj-Maj Gen promotion process.  The PRF is essentially a summary of the highlights of an officer’s OPRs with the current Senior Rater’s recommendation.  The board sees the officer’s SURF (raw data on the officer’s past assignments, education/training completed, deployment history, etc), the PRF and they have the officer’s OPRs/Decs, but this is really included only if there is something unclear on the PRF.  Eligible officers are basically put into order of merit, the cut line is determined by AF needs. Officers that fall above the cut line are promoted, those that are not are “passed over”.

Most of the promotion opportunity is “in the zone” which is determined by Time in Grade.  Above and Below-the-zone promotees are quite rare (typically less than 1% of those considered).

In-the-Promotion Zone (IPZ), Below-the-Promotion Zone (BPZ)

The IPZ is normal time an officer would promote to that rank.  If you are a stellar officer, you can promote 1BPZ (1 year Below-the-Promotion Zone) or 2BPZ.  BPZ isn’t always offered for each grade, it can change over the years.  Currently the first grade that you can promote BPZ is Lt Col, so you have a while before you have to worry about this.  This is similar to the enlisted SrA Below-the-Zone promotion opportunity, but the terminology and acronyms are slightly different.

Promotion Timeline

I think every officer AFSC has some sort of officer assignment team page on Air Force Portal.  If you search “13S” in the search box on the upper right, you’ll see “Space Operations (13S Officers)” or “Space Operations (AFPC 13S Officer Assignment Team)” in the search results.  On our page I found a document called “13S Year Group Milestone Chart” which outlines the timeline for all 13Ss.

The chart outlines when you are eligible to compete for Maj, Lt Col, and Col, and also lists what timelines for IDE, DO, Sq/CC, and SDE.  IDE and SDE are the officer versions of Professional Military Education (PME), and Director of Operations (DO) and Sq/CC are milestones in an officer’s career.  You don’t just get these PME opportunities or jobs by luck of the draw, an officer competes for all of these.  I’ll do more posts on this when I figure it out myself, but for now I created a visual for the rank timelines.  Click here to download the actual PPT if you want to modify one for yourself.

NOTE:  This chart is specific to the 13S career field but I’m pretty sure it is fairly standard across the Air Force.  Either way, be sure you verify this with your own career field timelines.

March 2018 Update

Here is some clarification from the comments below about the “100% promotion opportunity to Major.”

100% promotion opportunity” is the key phrase, and it’s only for the next 3-4 years, or until the AF replenishes its stock of FGOs.

100% promotion opportunity” means that most promotion-eligible captains won’t be required to submit a PRF, but with two exceptions: If a member receives a “Do Not Promote” OPR rating, or a “Promote” with article 15/UIF/LoR, then the member will be required to submit a PRF. Thus, the ball is still in the commander’s court to help the AF identify those captains who “ain’t quite ready.