Action line 90203 - promotion ceremonies

  • Published
  • By Anonymous
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Complaint: 

I know that a lot of time and effort goes into putting together the promotion ceremony. I also know that a lot of time and effort goes into earning that next stripe. So as a recent promotee, I was a little disappointed with the recent promotion ceremony. After five years of service, I have been to a lot of promotion ceremonies all of which included reciting the NCO/SNCO charge and tacking on new stripes. Our Air Force is proud of our tradition and heritage. So why have these traditions fallen to the wayside? Surely, it is not to save a little time. This would cheat those who have put time and effort into ensuring a successful ceremony, the promotees who put a lot of time into earning that next stripe, and family members and co-workers who were vital to the success of the promotee. Could you please explain to me why these traditions were absent from the recent ceremony and if we can expect them to return? Thank you.

Response: 

Thank you for your question regarding our monthly promotion ceremonies.
You are right: the tacking and creeds are a time-honored tradition, but sometimes traditions change. We no longer recite NCO/SNCO creeds or charges because our Air Force has adopted one creed for all Airmen. Prior to our Airman's Creed there were no official creeds or charges so our senior leadership developed a single creed that unifies us all as Airmen regardless of rank or where we're stationed. In addition to the creeds we replaced the "charges" with NCO/SNCO responsibilities, directly extracted from AFI 36-2618, The Enlisted Force Structure. We felt these were what newly promoted Airmen needed to be reminded of as they prepare to enter their next tier of enlisted leadership. 

Lastly, we no longer "tack" on stripes during our ceremony as this had quite frankly gotten out of hand; across our Air Force some Airmen were seriously injured from this tradition. 

I believe our current ceremonies capture our time-honored tradition of recognizing our Airmen in a professional way, and I applaud your concern for those traditions.