by Tech. Sgt. Steve Grever
Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs
2/5/2013 - JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO - RANDOLPH, Texas -- Editor's note: This story is a part of a series of articles to inform and educate total force Airmen about personnel programs impacted by the Military Personnel Data System upgrade occurring in March.
Air Force officials are encouraging active duty Airmen who are eligible to retrain in March to submit their completed retraining packages through the myPers website by Feb. 15 to avoid processing delays.
First term Airmen interested in retraining before their windows close in March 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 March. The upgrade project is scheduled to take about 23 days to complete, during which time, MilPDS will not be available. 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 utilizing the "email us" link. In all cases, Airmen will continue to receive automated email notifications for case changes and updates.
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 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.
