[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

It was the same here, but mostly driven by funding. So many positions were cut and so little money was available that a lot of our fighter squadrons were at less than 30% mission capable and that's just how it was.

Promotion in the USAF is based on the projected number of unfilled positions in the next rank in that career field. If there are 100 projected spaces and 400 people who are promotion eligible, they will promote 25%. Beyond that, it's based on how you compare to the other promotion eligible-personnel in your career field. If most people in your field are intelligent then it'll be a harder competition because everyone will score highly, but they still only promote the top 25%.

Well at least all 5 of our aircraft were mission ready 40% of the time back then.