HELP WITH AFOQT FAILURES

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marshalltj67

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Joined
Aug 23, 2016
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Hello everyone I need some serious advice!

I am currently a AS 400 at Det 028 located at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. I am a college basketball player and I am also majoring in Aerospace Engineering doing fairly well with a 3.2 GPA. I graduated SFT (LEAD) during the summer of 2017 and I completed my first POC year as a AS 300 my junior year excelling at a leadership position. I was also just granted a C-Staff Group Commander position this upcoming term.

To keep it straight forward I am not good at standardized testing as I did not do great on my SAT/ACT in high school and I failed the verbal portion of the AFOQT my first two times. I spent hundreds of dollars on Kaplan tutors and classes for the verbal AFOQT and I passed it on my third attempt (with waiver), but I spent so much time working on the verbal I missed the quantitative by 1 point. I have always had high quantitative scores before I just spent so much time focusing on passing the verbal. This does not define my math skills because I am a engineer which is heavily technical and I am doing great! I am just not good at standardize testing.

My father is a retired Lieutenant Colonel who was the department head of mechanical engineering at the USAFA and he did not pass the AFOQT as well, but was allowed to commission with a waiver. I was put up for the same waiver to waive the afoqt requirement but was unfortunately denied this week. I plan to do a congressional inquiry with my senators/representatives because I was once given a nomination to the USAFA and USNA but was denied appointment due to SAT/ACT scores and I chose AFROTC instead for the opportunity. These standardized test do not define me as the future officer and leader I know I can be. I have put in countless hours, effort, and money into my AFROTC career and I do not believe ONE POINT should define me. It has been my dream since I was 7 years old to follow in my fathers footsteps and serve my country as a United States Air Force Officer!

Two cadets at my detachment have been granted this waiver after failing the AFOQT three times and I do not understand why my waiver was not granted especially due to my circumstances.

Does anyone please have any advice for me? I understand the Air Force is a business and regulations are regulations but please understand this is my dream.

Thank you!
 
Have you contacted anyone at HQ AFROTC?

It might not be so much about regulations, but needs of the AF when you question why them and not you.
1. What was their AFSC... maybe it was critical manning and yours is not deemed critical.
2. Last yr or the yr before have different needs for the AF from a manpower perspective.
~ As a DS of an O5 I am sure your Dad has seen yrs where they did a RIF (reduction in force), and depending when he entered he probably remembers the major one back in 93/94.
~~ The point being that they have a set number they want commissioned in every yr group, and the last thing they want to do is to do a RIF if they can fix the number prior to commissioning.

I wish you the very best. For what it is worth don't give up hope.
 
@Pima makes very good points. The needs of the Service differ every year in terms of “The Number” needed for accession uptake from all commissioning sources. The waiver boundary is dynamic. If they have the numbers they need, the numbers of waivers, if any, drop. There is legislation that governs how many officers of each rank can be in each grade, and it is a manpower modeling challenge to figure out the annual intake, allow for attrition, optimize for retention, ensure sufficient but not excess manning.

Your dad fortunately got a waiver; in another year, he may not have. Were the two cadets you mention the same year as you? If not, that possibly made the difference.

Presumably, your waiver package competed against all others in the same situation, stacked against this year’s guidance for waiver availability. They may have looked at your package, liked what they saw, but simply didn’t have enough waivers to bring you in, when comparing you to all others in the same situation.

I know that doesn’t help you in any way, but you should know about the manpower drivers.

Have you consulted your chain of command about asking for reconsideration? Or have they said the door is closed for appeal by that route?

You have the right to ask for an MOC inquiry. That will roll over to SECAF, roll down hill to Air Force Staff, then manpower/personnel, then hq AFROTC. A formal report will be done to explore whether all was done by the book, by current manpower policy guidelines, that there were no elements of discrimination for any reason, that standards were consistently applied, there were no administrative errors, that there is/is not flexibility to grant a waiver. It will take some time, but a time limit will have been set to respond to the MOC. They will look at the facts in hand.

Good luck, because it’s clear you have the drive to serve, and let us know how it goes.
 
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@Pima I did not know I was allowed to contact HQ AFROTC personally? My dad entered in 85 and retired officially in 06. My AFSC is 62EXA for Aerospace Engineering and one of the cadets was airfield operations and the other cadet went rated to become a pilot.

@Capt MJ both cadets were in the commissioning class for 2018 and I am 2019. I have talked with my cadre and they are going to explore other options but as of now the AFROTC door has been closed because my waiver has been denied unless I can get HQ to change their minds. They have advised me to do the congressional inquiry to give it another shot and I think I will keep doing so because I can not give up on my dream. My cadre said they will do letters of recommendations, as well as some of my professors who are retired Air Force and I still have my nomination certificates to show for as well. I understand the man power stand point and that if they don’t need me they won’t want me but I just feel that one point on a standardized test should not ruined my whole career. I feel there should be some flexibility considering I have already made it so far and I’m so close to commissioning. With the pilot shortage and the amount of people retiring I would think that there should be at least one open spot?
 
Just keep going until you have exhausted every path.
As to pilot shortages, they go and come, and that is figured into the accession uptake every new FY. As for retiring, ditto, that’s part of manpower attrition planning.

You could be 1 point away, or 5 points away - a line was drawn, and you find yourself on the other side of it at the present time. Stay positive, don’t complain or let bitterness seep in. This is one of life’s tests. Your character will be demonstrated by how you handle it. Right now, you are not getting what you want. Bring your best attitude to bear, be the pinnacle of professional polish, help those junior to you, make everyone want to fight for you. Presumably, your entire career is not ruined if you can still commission as an AF officer in another specialty? Is your overall goal to proudly serve as an AF officer in any capacity, or primarily to be a pilot?

Go after what you want, but know that life throws unexpected turns/bumps/detours in your path. Fair or not, it happens. Rise to the challenge with your best self.
 
@Capt MJ Thank you for your kind words sir. My end goal is to proudly serve in the Air Force as a officer in any specialty. I will do any job given to me as long as I get to follow in my fathers foot steps! I know this is one of life’s test and I know God is testing me.. he was testing my faith every time I failed the AFOQT and I will not lose faith now.

Me and my parents are driving up to my school to meet with my Colonel some time next week. I will let you know what we decide to do. Have you heard of any ways to commission outside of AFROTC? I know OTS will probably not be an option but I heard of cross commissioning with Army ROTC?
 
Not trying to be Debbie Downer here, but impo there are flaws in your thought process.
1. Pilot shortage has no impact on you since you are going non-rated.
~ The shortage is at the O3/04 level where they can bolt at the 10 yr marker after winging. They are losing experienced fliers and now are trying to keep pilots that are on their 2nd tour, not the AFROTC grad that commissions in May 2019 and won't wing until May 2021. YES, you read that right. Most AFROTC grads will wait 1 yr before they start UPT, and it takes 54 weeks to wing, hence May 2021. (DS commissioned 5/12...winged 4/14). They cannot bolt until 2031. Non-rated AFROTC commissioned can start leaving in 2023.
2. OTS exists for a reason. It is a stop/gap. Not enough and they open the spigot.
~ Many Enlisted commission this way. The thing about OTS is that those prior Es already have been given an OTS slot for FY19, your yr group. On top of that there are kids in college that decided to go OTS and will sign on the dotted line this summer. (Our friend's DS did this...met the July board, and signed on the line end of Aug of his rising SR. yr) OTS has 2 boards a yr.
~~ Now do the math. If they have filled that number for 62EXA between USAFA, ROTC and OTS, than the AF is going to say, sorry...no waiver, we have enough.

Can you switch to Army OTS, I would advise you to talk to an Army recruiter that deals with OTS. However, realize the lifestyle in the Army is very different than the AF.
 
@Pima I am FY 2020 since I was suppose to commission in December 2019. Do you think if I push my commissioning ahead it would make a difference? I understand the fact that the Air Force may not need me but I was hoping for just a chance. If there is a chance to do Army OTS I would be open but my goal is to be in the Air Force. I wonder if there is any reserve routes I could take? Or any other routes I could take?
 
I would follow the advise of cadre which was to pursue that path, at least initially. If it doesn't pan out or the cadre has other ideas then try an alternate path. If all else fails, try an alternate path if you can find one, regardless of cadre. Try to work with the CoC wherever and whenever, possible.
Just one man's opinion.
 
Good luck in your quest. As an Army parent, I have no idea what the AFOQT is but I'm an opponent of standardized tests like the ACT & SAT because of situations just like this. You could be the best leader in your class but that 1 point of the AFOQT is what will be used to define you and deny you the opportunity to commission....or that's what it sounds like.

I don't know the answer but I would *guess* that if you finish out college and graduate that you would/should be able to commission in the Army after you get out. I can't imagine any downside for the Army.
 
Hello Everyone! Thanks for your advice I greatly appreciate it. My meeting with my parents and Colonel has been set for next week and one of the main things I want to discuss with him is if my specialty (62EXA) is full for my fiscal year like @Pima and @Capt MJ were saying; I want to see if HQ will let me do whatever the needs of the Air Force are. My goal is to be an officer first and to serve my country and I’ll do it anyway possible! I know the 13N field with missiles was in need of people so I’m gonna hope and pray and see what happens! I have my whole cadre and some family friends who are active duty pushing for me and I hope with a congressman pushing for me as well will make it better.
 
My Captain told me that it is before the job level so I don’t think the fact that I picked 62EXA even had an affect?
 
AFOQT for for those who dont know is like the SAT but includes a Navigation and Pilot section. Like the SAT test, it is timed but if I remember correctly from my son told me, they dont give you a lot of time for each section. Its kind of intersting because when my son was early in AF Rotc, i kept seeing people posting test scores like 90 95 90 85 (scores for each section) and they empahsized how important it was to do well on all the sections. The score however, to pass each section isnt very high. My son got a 95 on the pilot section and it is the only part that is used when calcuating the PCSM score. His other scores were nowhere near 95 and yet as far as I can tell, made no difference when he got his pilot spot. This could mean nothing as there are several factors invovled plus I think he hit the jackpot by graduating in the last couple of years.
 
Hello everyone!

Does anyone have anymore ideas of how I can go about this other than the congressional inquiry? I have my packet with my personal letter, my parents letter, my nominations, and my letters from my cadre and a family friend who is a wing commander for a base on the east coast ready to be sent out. I go back to school next week so I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas?

Thank you!
 
Hi!
I was reading your situation and I just wanted to know if you had an update? It’s been a few months but I’m hoping that you get the outcome you want and deserve!

marshalltj67 said:
Hello everyone!

Does anyone have anymore ideas of how I can go about this other than the congressional inquiry? I have my packet with my personal letter, my parents letter, my nominations, and my letters from my cadre and a family friend who is a wing commander for a base on the east coast ready to be sent out. I go back to school next week so I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
Cardinal said:
Hi!
I was reading your situation and I just wanted to know if you had an update? It’s been a few months but I’m hoping that you get the outcome you want and deserve!
Click to expand...

Hello!

My family and I sent out a request for a congressional inquiry to my district representative and my two senators about a month and half ago. I was told that with elections just passing it might take a while for it to land on the right desk but I do know it was received by all three and they are in Washington as of now. It is waiting game at this point but I am still sticking with my Aerospace Engineering degree as well as being enrolled in the AFROTC class and I am continuing to remaining positive. My packet consisted of:

A letter from my parents (Ret. AF Lt Col and my mother)
A letter from me
My college resume/transcript
My USAFA and USNA nomination certificates
A letter from my Colonel
A letter from my school Chancellor (Ret. AF Col)
A letter from my Major
A letter from my Captain
A letter from a professor (Ret. AF Lt Col)
A letter from a family friend (Ret. AF Col)

I am pretty confident but I graduate in December 2019 so I still have some time.

Thank you for your concern and happy Veterans Day all!
 
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