Shoe clerk 4 life

I'll agree with you on that too, WR is really not a whole lot better than Macon. I had my car broken in to my first year (base housing), and another buddy of mine had EVERYTHING stolen from his apt off of Moody/Russell (the apts back by the lake). No joke he came home after work and everything was gone, empty apt. I never heard any horror stories about Bonaire/Kathleen/and southeast of base, which is why I was pushing those. FLY6584, we were out on the lake 3-4 times a week wakeboarding. PM me if you want some good contacts as I know a good buddy that lives on the lake and has his own boat ramp ... he also has custom built jet-skis and would be a great guy to tie in to for anything Lake Tobo related. A lot of the dudes wakeboarding/boating with us were JSTARS guys too.

Let me just give a little "buyer beware" advice before choosing Macon ... there's a reason that not a whole lot of folks choose to live up there, even though it's relatively close. Macon is one of the most crime ridden cities in the entire nation and is certainly the worst in Georgia. The crime statistics regarding Macon are sobering: http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ga/macon/crime/ . The most telling is that Macon has a crime index of 1, on a scale of 1-100 (100 being the safest). During my 4 year tenure, there were multiple macon nightclubs deemed off-limits by the local CC due to shootings/deaths/assaults/robberies etc... Also, calling it a college town is a stretch. There are 2 very small colleges there, Macon State and Mercer, both of which have little to zero "campus life". Half the people attending these colleges already work on base or are in an internship program to get on base. Visiting Macon on occasion can be great though, you have Lake Tobosofkee, the Cherry Blossom festival, Riverside Mall, and a few other hidden gems, however, living there was a risk I personally wouldnt take.

Bonaire, Bonaire, Bonaire! Some great neighborhoods right around the intersection of Sandy Run and HWY 247. Very minimal traffic coming from that direction and you can come through the Russell gate and head to the flight line via the back-way by the gym. Also check out on HWY 96, still Bonaire and tons of great neighborhoods. Heed the advice of those above that said to stay away from Watson! Watson and Russell parkway are nightmares during work hours. Friendly reminder, Robins AFB is the largest employer in the state of GA and has some 30k people working on base, which means traffic on those 2 main roads is horrible. There is no "back gate" as east of base is all hunting land. Everyone is forced to come in from the west (Watson and Russell)

Depends on what the reason is. We had a 1Lt in our wing meeting the board who was medically dq'd. It did not state it anywhere in his PRF or DQHB, but the board could see that he was a student at his first assignment. His training unit made him an exec for a few months before the AF figured out what AFSC and base he would go to, and when PCS time came, they gave him (then a 2d Lt) an AFAM for PCSing. The board will see things like this and realize that he wasn't dq'd for a negative reason. If they had further questions, they'd dig in to the training report that you receive, where it would show that he had been medically dq'd. The above example was selected to Captain, btw.

Show me where I've given promotion advice. All I've done was shed some light on the promotion PROCESS, as I've seen some things thrown out in this thread that were not factual.

You quoted me to refute my statement but then agreed with me. I didn't say we are there grading packages, I said we are only there for "administrivia purposes only", i.e. prepping packages and getting anything the generals need. We are very much in the room and hear all the back and forth about "so and so has command experience, so in so's Senior Rater rated two people '#1' in same time period", all that stuff". I've picked up many good tid-bits about what leadership is lookig for by just being in the room listening. I'm by no means an expert, but I'd say I have the same knowledge as the local court bailiff has WRT to how the court process works and what decision the judge is leaning towards. As for the OPRs/Training Reports, Dec Writeups, we're both essentially right on this. Those full pacakages are there in the room, however, they do not look at them (only looking at DQHB and PRF) unless they are on the edge or something is glaringly wrong with their records. That's when they come to us to request the full package (maybe 1 out of 50 promotee's). So yes they are there, but I don't want people thinking that the board is thumbing through every document of yours prior to making a decision. That's the whole point of the PRF. Lot's of good info on here for the young Lt's. I'm saddened to say that I've re-acquainted with 2 of my college buds who are now flyers and neither had any clue as to what a "SURF" was. It wouldn't take but 1 day for an active duty Lt to get a good briefing on how AMS, PRDA, SURFS, vMPF, etc... work.

Roger that ... technically I sat on IMLRs and MLRs, however, that would be speaking chineese to most on this board, so I just used the blanket term "Promotion Board". The IMLR (Base Level) and MLR (MAJCOM Level) are where the remaining aggregate DP's are given out (left over from Wing/CC's and other Senior Raters). There are 1Lt's and Captains that do sit on promotion boards, but they are there for administrivia purposes only, which is the same function that I served on the IMLRs and MLRs ... we get all the packages together, separate the DP's, P's, and DNP's, etc... basically whatever the generals need done to make the process go smoother. On a side note, to the poster that stated he had his or a buddies PRF go up to the promotion board blank, I just cannot see how that can happen. There are way too many checks and balances for this to happen. Take any of the below boards for 2012 ... at each of the dates on the left, that PRF would be going through the SQ Exec, SQ/CC, Group Exec, Group/CC, Wing Exec, and finally Wing/CC. After it goes back and forth between them a few times, it gets turned in to the local MPF to go up to the IMLR and then MLR (all three of these would have an admin staff that would go through each package 1 by 1). After all three of these, the PRF would go to AFPC, and then to the board. Having been a Group Exec, Wing Exec, and sitting on an IMLR and MLR, I just cannot fathom that a package can make it to the promotion board "blank" (unless it's a DP for Captain or an O-6 that's not making O-7, these are the only times a PRF will be blank). On the topic at hand, I think it's ridiculous that rated officers aren't "auto-selected" to O-3 after all the training spent on you guys. If the member has some failed PT tests, UIF, DUI, Article 15, sure, cut his ass regardless of AFSC. One other misconception on the promotion process that I've seen being thrown around here ... there are only TWO documents that meet a promotion board, your DQHB (essentially your official SURF) and your PRF. The board does not see any of your training reports, OPRs, Decoration write-ups, etc... So for the few that have been claiming "maybe a missing training report was the reason 1st Lt was non-selected", is most likely not true. Would be happy to clarify any other questions for the Lt's on the promotion process.

Don't want to come in as a douche on the first post, but to be technically correct, it's actually called your Duty Qualification History Brief, or "DQHB". What you're thinking of is the Officer Pre-selection Brief, or "OPB", which is the unofficial document that the member gets to review 150 days prior to their promotion board date. The member is given 30 days to review the 1 page OPB and inform their commander of any mistakes in their record. After 30 days, the OPB then becomes your DQHB (if no changes, these 2 documents are identical), and this is what meets the board. *Full disclosure ... I'm a 1st Lt with a year as a Wing Exec under my belt and also have sat on promotion boards at the base and MAJCOM level. Take it FWIW.