Colorado Technical University

Air Force: Why is it that I have to hold a 5-level in my current career field now in order to put on E-5?

I recently became a reservist after 4 years of active duty. I completed ALS, passed my test for staff, and I have a 5-level in my first career field... but I was told the rules have recently changed and since I'm not a 5-level in the career I'm cross-training into, I have to wait until my training and OJT is completely finished before I can sew on staff sergeant. That means I have to wait 2 years to put on the rank that I already earned back in October when I passed my test. What gives?? Is there a possibility that I've received bad info or is that really how it's done now? I verified with people from training, the education office, and MPF. There's no longer an E5 test on the PDG or SKT's for reservists; we just have to either attend ALS or take the test on the ALS materials, pass that test with a 70, and our test requirement is fulfilled. I thought it was wierd too, because Active Duty still has line numbers and cutoff scores and all of that.

Public Comments

1. Sounds a little strange to me, except for one thing. What do you mean "passed" your test for staff? Unless I am missing something, I was not aware that reservist just tested and got a pass or fail for a stripe. If you mean that you got a line number for staff, then you did get some bad info. You should still be able to pin on staff when you were originally due to pin on...unless the reserves have changed since i was a reserve affairs officer. I had nothing to do with promotions; just finding reservist places to do their drill in active locations. I will add that since you will not have the 5-level in the job you are cross-training to, wearing staff will actually put you at a disadvantage since you won't know your job, but expected to. That is kind of what the stripe means. However, I do know of at least 3 cases in my experience where someone tested in another career field and cross trained before they put that stripe on and wore that new stripe while they were in tech school cross training. If the info you gave is correct, it is a good thing (bad for you) because it will close a loophole that has been in the air force promotion system that has actually screwed more people than it helped. Sorry...best I can tell you.
2. I am afraid you are pretty well stuck. There used to be a waver process but they did away with that. E-5 being an NCO status where you supervise others as well as sign off on work that they do and also their training requirements creates the situation that brought about this change to what it is now. Since you crosstrained and also gone from Active duty where you tested for E-5 and passed but were not yet promoted to the Active Reserve now you are in this current situation. That is one of the cons of crosstraining rather than going into the Reserves in your old AFSC where you already had a five level (craftsman rating).
3. Actually im surprised that they will even let the E-5 carry over. You must have a 5 level to be a SSGT. Since you changed your AFSC, you are no longer a 5 level. Yoiu were selected for promotion while on active duty, based on your old AFSC. Changing your AFSC and leaving active duty, pretty much killed that promotion.