Pre-Commitment review

Evidently USAFA will review 3rd degree cadets prior to commitment.

Posted from an USAFA Parents group Facebook page.

"The Commandant has a renewed emphasis on commitment -- Commitment to the Constitution, the country, the Air Force and the Air Force Academy. It seems to be working pretty well within the cadet wing. The cadets want more responsibility and the Commandant is doing that. With that comes an emphasis on taking a hard look at the cadets during their 3-degree year to identify those not meeting standards and then taking appropriate actions. As many of you know, cadets don't have the active duty service commitment until they sit down in their first class of their 2-degree (junior) year. The Commandant wants to ensure every cadet who does that is truly committed to service."
David K. Cannon, Director of Communication, US Air Force Academy

AGL - I'm not convinced that this is really all that different than what has happened in the past. There have always been a ton of boards for cadets prior to commitment who were not meeting standards, as I remember it, there was quite a few cadets who left before commitment due to chronic issues with PFT, academics, poor MPA, etc. Some of these outcomes would not be settled until after the fall term of their C2 year started and perhaps the idea is to formalize this process of evaluation before the term started and the cadets committed. If this is a greater departure from that, I think any young person who is considering a career in the AF might well be served by considering other options.

It's supposed to be a little more serious than in years past, but it's not like they're going to start kicking 3 degrees out right and left...my understanding is that if you're on 2 probations (or 1 probation and barely off another one) or have an exceptional number or demerits or are in some degree of trouble along those lines, you'll be put on aptitude probation for the next semester. I don't know for sure, but I think the thinking was that if you don't get off that probation, you'd be disenrolled.

falconfamily said:

If this is a greater departure from that, I think any young person who is considering a career in the AF might well be served by considering other options.

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My understanding is that it is a greater departure than from years past....which is why I posted it. Supposedly each 3rd degree will be evaluated starting at the element leader level and up through their AOCs. I do not know how much of this is a leadership exercise and how much these evaluations will actually determine the USAFA future of the 3rd degrees. My son's theory is that USAFA will use these evaluations as a method of weeding out the "dead wood". Cadets barely skating by with bad attitudes that don't have enough demerits or probations to have been dis-enrolled in the past. I'm sure some of these cadets would have left on their own before commitment....just not sure how many. Again....just my son's opinion but he doesn't think this will apply to cadets barely scraping by academically unless (as has been the situation in the past) they are evaluated by an academic review board and a decision has been made that they should not continue for academic reasons.

I agree that anyone considering USAFA should consider all the recent changes and decide if this SA is the right path to becoming an officer for THEM. Clearly just getting into USAFA, like the AF itself, is just a first hurdle to overcome and the beginning of a long series of ongoing evaluations. JMPO..