The list makers - promotion list - Brief Article

Airman, August, 2001 by Jim Greeley

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Chief Master Sgt. Gregory Haley is recovering from making a list and checking it twice. No, the chief's not a Santa wannabe, but he helped bring early Christmas presents to nearly 21,000 airmen last month.

From his office deep in the bowels of the Air Force Personnel Center, Haley and his 24-person staff produce "The List."

In this case, it's the promotion list to staff sergeant -- something 32,000 promotion-eligible senior airmen are anxiously waiting to see. The list goes public this month.

"People have this perception that the list is this magical thing produced with smoke and mirrors," said Senior Master Sgt. David Travis, a personnel center magician who's been working in the promotion section for two years. "In reality, it's a database we run that crunches numbers and fairly racks and stacks everyone eligible."

There's no wizardry involved. With a left-mouse click Travis demonstrates how the system works.

Haley and his folks deal with all things promotion related in the Air Force, but the two biggest brain drains each year for his folks are the staff and technical/master sergeant lists. Each list is a full-time job for several of his people.

"Our enlisted corps believes in our promotion system," Haley said. "That's due in part to the work these people do. It's not good enough for us to have a 99 percent success rate. We've got to be perfect."

The mountains of paperwork, facts, figures and test scores that go into making up a promotion list are mind boggling. Every promotion test taken in the field comes to Haley's staff to be scored and put in the database.

"There are days I go home and have nightmares about it," said Master Sgt. Dan Mendez who's been working promotions for more than a year.

The list will remain mythic, and the folks in the basement at AFPC will continue checking the list once, twice -- you get the idea.