Daijiworld Media Network – Washington

Washington, Jul 9: The US Air Force has revoked 135 promotions after discovering a scoring error in a key promotion examination, while another 135 airmen who were wrongly overlooked will now be promoted following a review.

The error was traced to an outdated answer key used to evaluate promotion exams for Security Forces personnel seeking advancement to the rank of technical sergeant.

According to the Air Force, more than 2,200 examination papers were rescored using a validated answer key after the discrepancy came to light.

The review found that 135 airmen had been incorrectly informed that they had secured promotions, while another 135 who had achieved qualifying scores were omitted from the promotion list.

Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David R. Wolfe described the incident as an "isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly" and said the service was committed to correcting the mistake.

"We owe it to those affected to address it immediately," Wolfe said, acknowledging that the decision would be difficult for those impacted.

The Air Force clarified that the error affected only Security Forces personnel competing for promotion to technical sergeant and did not impact any other career fields. Officials also emphasised that the mistake resulted from human error and was not related to artificial intelligence.

Of the 586 Security Forces personnel initially selected for promotion, 451 will retain their promotions, while 135 will lose their promotion status. The remaining 135 newly identified candidates will be added to the promotion list, keeping the total number of promotions unchanged.

The Air Force said it plans to announce the revised list of promoted technical sergeants through a supplemental promotion release during the week of July 13.