Any AF January COT hopefuls out there?

Experience tells me the Air Force is small - and she's quite top heavy. More officers = harder to get promoted. Smaller force numbers = smaller number of slots available.

Look at how many personnel are in the Navy. The Navy has faster promotion rates because they have more officer billets (i.e., more jobs requiring a commission). Therefore, they have more places to fill even if their commissioned numbers are fewer. You have 3000 personnel on an aircraft carrier, and only a tiny number of them are commissioned. Not so in the USAF.

(It's also the same for the Army - ask any enlisted personnel in either of those branches how fast they get promoted, and you'd be stunned when you compared the numbers for our E5 and up promotion rates - and the same with the commissioned billets.)

The Air Force is top heavy because we're pilot heavy - it's what we do. So of course we have more officers, but we still have only a certain number of O4 slots, and O5 slots, command positions, staff positions, etc. The number of available billets is mandated by Congress. Because the AF is relatively small force wise (meaning the number of enlisteds and officers), we have lower numbers for higher level positions - so it's harder to get promoted.

Thanks, makes much more sense now!

it's so nerve-wracking waiting for the boards. my recruiter told me that results won't be out until the first week of december even though the actual date for getting results out is november 20. what has anyone's experience been? i'm excited and ready for COT!