by Tech. Sgt. Steve Grever
Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
9/21/2012 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) -- Air Force officials are encouraging Regular Air Force Airmen who are eligible to retrain in December to submit their completed retraining packages through the myPers website by Nov. 15 to avoid processing delays.
Airmen need to accomplish these actions because the Air Force is upgrading and transferring the Military Personnel Data System to the Defense Information Systems Agency's Defense Enterprise Computing Center in December. The upgrade project is scheduled to take approximately 23 days to complete, during which time MilPDS will not be available.
"Airmen who want to apply for retraining need to submit their completed retraining packages with all required documentation by Nov. 15 to allow time for processing prior to the MilPDS upgrade in December," said Master Sgt. Angela Harris, Air Force Personnel Center skills management branch superintendent.
AFPC officials encourage first-term Airmen to complete retraining applications prior to the quality review process board on Nov. 30 as subsequent quality review processes will be suspended until the MilPDS upgrade is complete.
"Accomplishing these packages before the upgrade ensures members' applications are reviewed and processed for approval or disapproval," said Harris. "This will eliminate any uncertainty with their packages in case there are system issues when the upgrade is completed."
Airmen should continue to work directly with the Total Force Service Center through the myPers website by using the "email us" link on the My Account web page. In all cases, Airmen will continue to receive automated email notifications for case changes and updates.
The Air Force processed about 29,000 retraining applications in 2011.
Reserve and Guard members will receive specific instructions from the Air Force Reserve Command and Air Reserve Personnel Center concerning how the MilPDS upgrade will impact their personnel programs. More information is available on the ARPC public website at http://www.arpc.afrc.af.mil.
MilPDS is the primary records database for personnel data and actions that occur throughout every total force Airman's career. MilPDS is also used to initiate Airman pay actions, maintain Air Force accountability and strength data and support a host of interactions with other Air Force processes and systems that rely on personnel data.
Officials will continue to release additional information and guidance to the Air Force's manpower, personnel, services and pay communities and total force Airmen to continue to educate them on how the service will perform critical personnel and pay tasks during the MilPDS upgrade.
For more information about the MilPDS upgrade, visit the myPers website at http://mypers.af.mil.
