In his first official missive to the field, the Air Force’s new top enlisted man, CMSAF Rodney McKinley, explains some recent changes the service has made to the senior NCO performance and rating process. He tells airmen that “stratification comments”—those that would rank an NCO against others at his or her base—have become “overused, vague, and subjective.” Consequently, the service has implemented some stringent rules. And, as McKinley writes, “The bottom line is less stratification is better.”
It’s been a full three decades since the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School got a new aircraft, but that streak came to an end when a trio of A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft flew in from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., to their new home at Edwards Air…