(WASHINGTON) — The Air Force earlier this week said 135 airmen who were initially told they had earned promotions will not receive those promotions after the service discovered a scoring error on a required promotion exam.
The issue, announced Tuesday, affected only security forces airmen, who serve as the Air Force’s law enforcement and security personnel. An outdated answer key was used to score the promotion test, leading the service to incorrectly notify 135 airmen that they had been selected for promotion to technical sergeant, a mid-level enlisted rank, according to the Air Force.
“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Wolfe, the service’s top enlisted leader, said in a statement. “This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”
Airmen’s promotions are based on a series of factors including testing, schooling and how long they’ve been serving.
The service called the incident an “isolated” and a “highly unprecedented anomaly.” It rescored each exam with the correct answer key. Out of 586 airmen selected for promotion, 451 will keep their promotions, according to the service.
Air Force officials said they are evaluating the implementation of additional safeguards in its promotion process.
A separate group of 135 airmen who were incorrectly denied promotions because of the testing error will now be promoted, the Air Force said.
The incident is the latest in a series of high-profile testing and evaluation issues involving the service. Last year, the Air Force Academy launched a broad investigation after discovering nearly 100 cadets had cheated on a weekly knowledge test. A separate cheating scandal in 2020 involved nearly 250 cadets accused of honor code violations, prompting a review of the academy’s programs.
“We promote Airmen based on merit, which is established in federal law and policy,” Lt. Gen. Jefferson O’Donnell, deputy chief of staff for Air Force Manpower, Personnel, and Services, said in a statement earlier this week. “Who we are as an Air Force, defined by our core values, demands integrity in the meritocratic promotion system; we have a core obligation to ensure the Airmen who earned it are selected.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.