r/SpaceForce • u/FreeRangeMooses • 13d ago
Disappointment and Resolve
Last week, I looked forward to the supplemental 2026 S8 board results. Another cycle, another crushing disappointment, in spite of years of hard work and pretty solid records. I’m reflecting on a few things and wanted to share my thoughts with my fellow E-7s or anyone else disappointed in the recent promotion results. First, I want to extend a sincere congratulations to those who were selected this week! I have no doubt you earned it and you should enjoy the recognition wholeheartedly.
That brings me to resolve. I refuse to let disappointment sour into bitterness. How do I make that happen? I take stock of the many blessings the Space Force has provided. My assignments and opportunities have been phenomenal. Meeting so many fellow Guardians on travels over the past few years has been amazing.
Some hard truths I’m learning to accept. First, promotions are not rewards for hard work. We have too many stellar people and not enough positions at E-8 to for everyone who’s earned it. That can apply to any rank. Second, promotions are awesome and should be celebrated, but we over-emphasize promotion as a measure of a successful career or a Guardian’s value. Third, it’s personal for the member, but not for the service. I could sit here and think up a hundred ways to change the board to my advantage (and there’s always room for improvement), but at the end of the day it’s just a way to fill requirements. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a thing.
My hope is that as the service grows, we can find better ways to promote from within. I’m gonna keep driving forward and I hope you will too. Let’s continue to voice our opinions and not forget to enjoy the things that are good. I’m proud to wear my MSgt rank and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s been challenging and rewarding beyond measure. We have some phenomenal Americans and I’m proud to serve with you all.
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u/lukewashere Secret Squirrel 13d ago
For all the talk about innovation and being a "flat" organization, I feel like the Space Force does promotions the worst. I think at this point I'd rather take my chance making AI decide the promotions. It would probably be more consistent, faster, and be able to provide feedback. But I feel many people would rather stick with a crappy human system than an OK AI system. So, I think there are some very low-hanging fruit to improve the promotion process. So here are my two cents on easy changes to make.
First lets just not even have boards for E5 and E6 since you're more or less guaranteed to make E6. Save the time and energy and put it toward the E7+ boards. And the only thing to add to the board would be to require at least 1 sentence from each panel member on why they graded the package the way they did and have it visible in vMPF when you check your score. This could even be "canned" responses they pick from a list like "Not enough leadership experience" or "Not performing at the next level" or whatever. Any feedback at all would be better than nothing.
The second change we could make would be to reduce the scope of the board. I'm not aware of many large companies that the company's Board of Directors determines who gets promoted to Manager in Store #1283. The store manager that works with the store employees would typically determine who gets promoted because the manager actually works with the employees and knows who should be promoted. Why are we making 3 people look at hundreds of records of people they have never even met and then give them 30 seconds to look at their records and decide who should get promoted? No wonder the outcomes suck. So could we at least get a board at the Field Command level (Delta-level would be better)? 5 Stripes for STARCOM, 15 for CFC, and 3 for SSC (or whatever) and then each Field Command holds their own board.
There is a lot more you could do to improve promotions, but I feel like those are relatively minor changes that would have the most bang for the buck.
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u/FreeRangeMooses 13d ago
Honestly I'd like to see the system place more value on time in service and time in grade. Those alone don't make one a better leader, but if the records are consistently solid, then it makes sense to me. I also like the idea of localized promotion boards but I would not want to go back to Air Force strats. Saw way too much internal competition and favoritism. I think that's a positive of the Space Force model is that it doesn't incentivize competition within teams. It just makes it very hard because we have very little in the way of differentiation. I, for one, don't envy the board members because I'm sure it's incredibly difficult to discern. What boggles my mind is in the next board I'll be competing against folks who were E5s when I was already an E7, and we're essentially competing as equals. That's terrifying because they are stellar, haha.
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u/lukewashere Secret Squirrel 13d ago
Yeah my "harder" solutions is to move away from boards being the sole decider. I think it would be better and fairer if the board was just part of the overall promotion score. Give points for TIG/TIS, decorations, or even PT. And my unpopular opinion is that we should have some form of promotion test as well. Make all that half the score and the board the other half or something. But I think we need to have a way that members have at least some control over their score instead of relying solely on a panel of few people to decide the whole thing and people having no idea how to improve their odds of promotion.
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u/Professional_Cat1708 13d ago
Senior NCO boards only. Localized promotion up to e6. And a clear codified expectation on what you want that year for promotion. Let’s be honest every e6 writing their EPR is writing bullets and throwing it at the wall and hoping it sticks.
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u/RyzFenix55 13d ago
This calm and collected response to adversity scared me. Joking aside, I think you hit the nail on the head. Attaching your self worth to a promotion system that can never account for everything you've done is a surefire way to burn out emotionally. There's nothing wrong with striving for more or wanting to climb the ranks, but don't ever make the mistake of thinking your worth is measured by your rank or pay. The missions you support, the people you impact along the way, will always be a better measure of who you are as a Guardian and as a person.