Air Force revokes 135 promotions after grading error in test: Hard for everyone
More than 100 Air Force airmen had their promotions revoked after a scoring blunder on a required exam upended this year’s process — as officials warned the mistake will be “hard for everyone impacted.”Air Force officials discovered that an outdated answer key was mistakenly used to score the Specialty Knowledge Test, an exam used in promotion decisions for security forces airmen, the Air Force announced Tuesday.The branch was forced to rescind 135 promotions that would’ve elevated the service members to Sergeants and award those slots to other troops who qualified under the updated system.“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” Chief Master Sgt.of the Air Force David R.
Wolfe said.“This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”The error came to light after the promotion list had already been released and when an enlisted promotions team member at the Air Force Personnel Center found the wrong scoring key had been used, according to the service.Officials rescored all 2,285 eligible exams and learned that 135 airmen who had been told they were selected for promotion to technical sergeant no longer met the cutoff score.Another 135 airmen who were initially passed over will now be promoted instead.Technical sergeant is a mid-level enlisted rank, and promotions are based on several factors, including performance, time in service and scores on the Specialty Knowledge Test.After the exams were rescored, 451 of the original 586 selectees kept their promotions.
The total number of promotions did not change.The Air Force described the mix-up as an isolated and unprecedented case of human error that affected only the security forces career field.Officials said they verified the correct answer key with subject matter experts before rescoring every eligible exam.“We promote Airmen based on merit, which is established in federal law and policy,” Lt.Gen.
Jefferson O’Donnell, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for manpower, person...