Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE)

You are the apprentice SERE Specialist. You are the student who just became the instructor-in-training, and the only thing standing between you and the front of the room is closing out your 5-skill upgrade under a certified instructor who is watching everything.

You completed SERE Level C yourself at Fairchild AFB before you ever put on the 1T0X1 badge — that course is the prerequisite, not the end point. Now you are in the instructor certification pipeline: observing certified instructors run classroom sessions on Code of Conduct instruction, survival techniques, and evasion skills; assisting with field exercise setup and safety control; running supporting logistics for water survival and land navigation lanes; and working through the CFETP task list under direct supervision. The SSgt who signs your evaluations is watching whether you can manage student safety in a field environment, execute the doctrine cleanly, and stay inside the unclassified instructional lane without improvising. You are burning through the CDCs for the 1T051 upgrade simultaneously and learning the difference between what you experienced as a student and what you will be legally authorized to teach as a certified instructor. The certification pipeline is supervised, structured, and non-negotiable.

• 01Assist in executing a Code of Conduct instructional block under direct supervision — correct doctrine, correct sequence, zero improvisation outside the approved lesson plan.
• 02Run the safety-control function for a field survival exercise segment: student accountability, emergency response procedures, boundary awareness, and the chain of communication when something goes wrong.
• 03Set up and strike field training aids, shelters, and land navigation lanes to the exercise SOP standards — every item accounted for at endex, no equipment left in the training area.
• 04Conduct basic water survival instruction preparation — pre-check of equipment, student safety briefings, emergency egress drills — as directed by the certifying instructor.
• 05Operate within the public-affairs-cleared, unclassified instructional lane for all Code of Conduct and survival content — know the line and stay on the correct side of it every time.
• 06Hold current CPR/AED certification and the medical readiness level the 66th Training Squadron requires for SERE instructors working field environments.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — Career Field Education and Training Plan: the line-item task list the certifying instructor signs off against. Read it before every training iteration.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) — the foundational document that governs what SERE instruction is built to teach. Know it cold before you brief it.
• —JP 3-50 — Personnel Recovery: the joint doctrine that frames the Personnel Recovery mission your graduates will be expected to execute.
• —Your CDC volumes for the 1T051 upgrade — do the work. The SKT draws from the CDCs and the field environment will surface every gap you left.
• —AFI 1-1 — Air Force Standards (the umbrella conduct document; the standards you enforce in the training environment are the same ones you live by off the clock).
• —DAFMAN 36-2905 — Department of the Air Force Physical Fitness Program (the PT standard that does not stop for a field exercise schedule).

• —CDC volumes complete and End-of-Course exam passed inside the AETC-prescribed timeline — a late CDC is the certifying instructor's first counseling.
• —5-skill level (1T051) upgrade signed off on time — every CFETP task evaluated and closed, the certifying instructor and section chief signatures in place.
• —Instructor certification complete inside the pipeline timeline — observation hours, supervised instruction iterations, and the final certification evaluation cleared without a repeat.
• —PT test passing under current DAFMAN 36-2905 — SERE instructors work in field environments carrying gear; the fitness standard is not aspirational.
• —Zero training safety violations during your certification pipeline — one preventable student injury under your watch while you are not yet certified is a leadership conversation that does not go your way.

• —Improvising instructional content outside the approved lesson plan because you remember something from your own Level C experience. What you remember and what is approved for instruction are not the same thing — the certifying instructor corrects it in front of the class, and the section chief writes the counseling.
• —Letting a student safety issue slide during a field evolution because you did not want to stop the exercise. A field injury that was preventable is a training report, a safety investigation, and a very uncomfortable conversation with the squadron commander.
• —Losing accountability of training aids or field equipment at endex. The inventory is not bureaucracy — a missing item in a training area is a safety hazard and a report.
• —Treating your own Level C experience as the standard against which student performance is measured. The standard is the doctrine, the lesson plan, and the approved evaluation criteria — your memory of how hard it was is irrelevant.
• —Failing to escalate a student welfare concern to the certifying instructor immediately. The line between the training challenge that builds the skill and the situation that requires intervention is not yours to draw alone while you are still in the certification pipeline.

The good A1C 1T0X1 is the apprentice the certifying SSgt sends to run the field accountability check alone by month six because the student count comes back clean, the safety boundaries are enforced without prompting, and the equipment inventory at endex is always correct. By the BTZ window the certifying instructor is making the case for early SrA and the 5-skill task list is closing on schedule.

You are the certified journeyman SERE instructor. Your name is on the lesson plan, your voice is in the classroom, and every student who clears the course has had their readiness tested by someone who carries your certification.

The 5-skill upgrade is done and the certification evaluation cleared — you are a certified SERE instructor, which means you stand at the front of the room alone. You conduct classroom instruction on Code of Conduct, survival skills, and evasion techniques; you run field training evolutions with a section of students; and you execute the water survival training segment on the rotation. You evaluate student performance against the doctrine standard, you write student progress records, and when a student is not meeting the standard, you bring that to the section chief with documentation — not an opinion. You are also starting to train the new A1C the way you were trained, and you are studying for the SSgt WAPS cycle: PFE and the 1T0X1 SKT. The additional duty work (training monitor, dorm NCOIC prep, squadron committee) is landing on your desk and the ALS slot conversation has started.

• 01Deliver a Code of Conduct instructional block to a high-risk personnel class — aircrew, SOF-adjacent — accurate to the doctrine, inside the approved lesson plan, without needing the certifying instructor in the back of the room.
• 02Run a field training evolution end-to-end: student safety brief, execution, accountability throughout, immediate-action drill rehearsal, and a post-evolution AAR that ties the field experience back to the doctrine.
• 03Evaluate student performance against the CFETP-aligned qualification standard — accurate, documented, defensible — and brief a failing student's status to the section chief without softening the assessment.
• 04Instruct and supervise the water survival training segment to the 66th Training Squadron standard — equipment checks, student skill verification, emergency procedures current and drilled.
• 05Sign off CFETP apprentice-level task items for the A1C you are mentoring — demonstrate, supervise, document — with the same rigor your certifying instructor applied to you.
• 06Study the WAPS bench — Promotion Fitness Examination and the 1T0X1 Specialty Knowledge Test — starting at 90 days, not 30. Pull the current AFPC promotion message and the SKT study reference list off MyFSS / e-Publishing.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — you sign at the apprentice level when delegated; the 7-skill line items are the next horizon.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) — you are teaching from this document. Every instructional iteration is checked against it.
• —JP 3-50 — Personnel Recovery: the joint doctrine framework that gives the Code of Conduct instruction its operational context for the aircrew and SOF students you certify.
• —DAFMAN 36-2406 — Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems: the EPB / Stratification inputs your SSgt is writing about you — feed them the bullets with measurable results.
• —DAFI 36-2502 — Enlisted Promotions: WAPS mechanics — pull the current AFPC promotion message, know your sequence number, and treat the SKT study as a 90-day project, not a 30-day sprint.
• —AFI 36-2606 — Reenlistment in the United States Air Force: the first selective retention window may land inside this tier. Know when your window opens and what the AFSC retention picture looks like.

• —5-skill level (1T051) upgrade complete; CFETP at the journeyman level current and audited.
• —Instructor certification evaluations current — re-evaluation windows do not slip; a lapsed certification in a SERE instructor is not a paperwork problem, it is an operational one.
• —ALS slot held and graduated — ALS in residence is required before pinning SSgt; do not let the ops schedule take the slot.
• —WAPS first attempt for SSgt taken inside the window — PFE and the 1T0X1 SKT, current AFPC message followed exactly.
• —Student evaluation records complete and current — every student's performance documented inside the timeline the section chief briefs to the squadron commander.

• —Letting a student reach the end of a training event with an unresolved performance deficiency because "they showed improvement." Your evaluation is the record the high-risk billet personnel program relies on — a checkmark that is not earned is a liability.
• —Skipping the post-evolution AAR because the field timeline ran long. The debrief is where the doctrine becomes permanent for the student — cutting it is cutting the most important part.
• —Treating an instructor certification re-evaluation as a check-the-box event. The section chief who discovers an out-of-currency instructor is not sympathetic to a "I thought it was still valid" explanation.
• —Skipping the EPB self-input and letting the SSgt reconstruct your contributions from memory. The bullets you do not write are the ones the WAPS board never sees.
• —Discussing specific SERE training methodology or resistance-related course content in any unofficial setting — social media, the barracks, the chow hall. The program's value depends on operational integrity. One conversation in the wrong place is a formal inquiry.

The good SrA 1T0X1 is the certified instructor the section chief puts on the first block of the week's high-risk billet course because the classroom runs clean, the student evaluations are documented before close of business, and the field evolutions come back with zero safety deviations. ALS is done or scheduled; the SKT study started at 90 days; the A1C training record is current; and the SSgt pin is a first-attempt WAPS cycle.

You are the new NCO in the SERE section and the certifying instructor for apprentice-level instructors working their upgrade. The students in the room trust the person at the front of it — and right now, you are responsible for whether that trust is earned.

You run a section of 3-5 Airmen, you certify apprentice instructors through the 1T051 upgrade, and you own the training quality of the evolutions your section runs. In the classroom you conduct Code of Conduct instruction, survival and evasion skill blocks, and the personnel recovery doctrine tie-in that gives high-risk billet personnel the framework to use what you are teaching. In the field you supervise multi-student evolutions, manage the safety control function at the section level, and write the student performance evaluations the section chief presents to the wing Personnel Recovery Officer. You write EPB / Stratification inputs for the SrAs and Amn under you, you are working the 7-skill upgrade CDCs, and you are running the TSgt WAPS study alongside the day job. At some locations, the conversation about instructor development billets at the 66th Training Squadron or JPRA-affiliated assignments begins here.

• 01Certify an apprentice instructor through the 1T051 upgrade — observation hours, supervised instruction, task sign-offs, the final certification evaluation — with documentation that survives a MAJCOM inspection.
• 02Run a multi-student field training evolution as the primary supervisor: safety control, student accountability, immediate-action drill execution, and post-evolution AAR to the doctrine standard.
• 03Brief student readiness status to the section chief and the wing Personnel Recovery Officer — accurate, documented, and covering the outliers, not just the passes.
• 04Write defensible EPB / Stratification inputs under DAFMAN 36-2406 — measurable bullets built from documented student outcomes and training events, not adjectives about effort.
• 05Instruct across the full approved 1T0X1 curriculum at the craftsman level: Code of Conduct, survival skills, evasion techniques, water survival, and the personnel recovery doctrine framework.
• 06Mentor SrAs through the SKT study cycle and the ALS prerequisite the way the good SSgts before you did — and be honest about which ones are ready for the stripe.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — you sign at the journeyman level now; the craftsman (7-skill) line items are in motion against the upgrade timeline.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) — your instruction is built on this. Know it deeply enough to handle the question the aircrew asks that is not in the approved slides.
• —JP 3-50 — Personnel Recovery: the joint doctrine the Personnel Recovery Officer at wing level coordinates against — your training products feed into this framework.
• —DAFMAN 36-2406 — Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems: you write EPB / Stratification inputs now. Verify the current revision on e-Publishing before you build a bullet.
• —DAFI 36-2502 — Enlisted Promotions: WAPS / TSgt mechanics — pull the current AFPC promotion message; check your sequence number; the 1T0X1 SKT is broad at the craftsman level.
• —AFI 1-1 — Air Force Standards and DAFMAN 36-2905 — the fitness and conduct standards your section watches you live.

• —ALS graduate; 7-skill level (1T071) CDCs in progress and on track against the CFETP craftsman timeline.
• —NCOA packet in motion — required before TSgt pin; the slot is competitive and the ops schedule will not move to accommodate a late application.
• —Section instructor certifications current — every SrA and Amn in the section inside their re-evaluation window; if someone lapses on your watch, it is yours to answer for.
• —WAPS for TSgt taken inside the window on the first attempt — PFE and the 1T0X1 SKT, current AFPC message followed.
• —PT test passing with the visible-on-paper score; CCAF transcript moving toward the applicable associate degree in the 1T0X1 pathway.

• —Signing off an apprentice instructor's CFETP task because the iteration "looked good" when you did not actually observe the full task execution. That signature says the Airman is qualified — a student injury six months from now opens the task sign-off as Exhibit A.
• —Letting student evaluation records fall behind schedule because the field training calendar is packed. Late documentation is not an administrative problem — it is the section chief finding out your section cannot be relied on for the Personnel Recovery Officer brief.
• —Treating the NCOA packet as something to build after you pin — NCOA in residence has limited seats and competes across the wing. The SSgt who applies late is the SSgt who waits another cycle.
• —Hiding a student safety deviation from the section chief to "handle it at the section level." Safety deviations in a SERE training environment are reported up, documented completely, and corrected before the next iteration — no exceptions.
• —Discussing course structure or training methodology in a way that telegraphs classified or operationally sensitive program details in any unofficial setting. The integrity of the program is the product.

The good SSgt 1T0X1 is the section NCO the section chief sends the wing Personnel Recovery Officer to talk to before the annual readiness review, because the student records are current, the apprentice instructors are certified and on their re-evaluation timeline, and the field evolutions come back with no safety findings. ALS is done; the TSgt WAPS is a first attempt; the NCOA packet is in; and the 7-skill CDCs are on track.

You are the section NCOIC of a SERE flight and the senior technical voice the wing Personnel Recovery Officer calls when the high-risk billet certification list has a gap. The quality of your section's instruction is measured in whether the aircrew and SOF personnel who graduated your course perform when it counts.

You are the NCOIC of a SERE section — supervising 5-12 Airmen across the SrA, SSgt, and Amn bench — or you are sitting a career-broadening billet at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA), an AETC instructor development slot, or a joint assignment where your 1T0X1 skills support a Personnel Recovery working group. In the section NCOIC role, you run the certification currency for every instructor in the section, you write 2-3 EPB / Stratification reports per cycle, and you defend the section's training throughput and student qualification rate to the squadron commander and the wing Personnel Recovery Officer. You conduct high-impact instructional events — command-level Code of Conduct briefings, Level B certification support, integration training with the wing aircrew — and you are the Airman the squadron commander calls when the MAJCOM is asking why a high-risk billet personnel slot is uncertified. You are also building the SNCOA packet, competing for the MSgt WAPS cycle (PFE only at this level), and having the first honest conversation with the Functional Manager about where the career goes from here.

• 01Run a SERE section's instructor certification currency program — every instructor inside their re-evaluation window, documentation audit-ready, and no lapsed certifications on the board when the MAJCOM looks.
• 02Brief the wing Personnel Recovery Officer on section training throughput, high-risk billet certification status, and any student readiness gaps — in language the PRO can carry unchanged into the wing safety brief.
• 03Conduct command-level Code of Conduct and personnel recovery doctrine briefings for aircrew leadership, wing leadership, and joint partners — accurate to JP 3-50 and EO 10631, no improvised content.
• 04Write 2-3 EPB / Stratification inputs per cycle under DAFMAN 36-2406 that the section chief can defend at the squadron roll-up — measurable bullets from documented student outcomes.
• 05Mentor the section's WAPS cycle — PFE and the 1T0X1 SKT for SSgts testing for TSgt — using current AFPC promotion message timelines, 90 days out, not 30.
• 06Manage the section's training safety program: review the field evolution risk assessment, verify emergency procedures are current and drilled, and brief the risk posture to the section chief before each major training event.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — you sign at the craftsman level and own the section's audit posture against the 7-skill line items.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) — you brief at the command level from this document; know it well enough to answer the questions the lesson plan does not cover.
• —JP 3-50 — Personnel Recovery: you coordinate with the wing PRO against this document; know the framework at the joint planning level, not just the instructional level.
• —DAFMAN 36-2406 — Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems: you write 2-3 EPB / Stratification per cycle; verify the current revision on e-Publishing.
• —DAFI 36-2502 — Enlisted Promotions: MSgt WAPS mechanics — PFE only at this level; pull the current AFPC promotion message and verify your sequence number on vMPF.
• —JPRA-published Personnel Recovery doctrine and instructor standards relevant to your section's certification lane — verify through JPRA or the unit's Functional Manager.

• —NCOA graduate; SNCOA packet in motion — resident vs correspondence, verify current eligibility on MyFSS / e-Publishing.
• —7-skill level (1T071) complete; section CFETP currency defensible at the Functional Manager review.
• —Section instructor certification rate at 100% — no lapsed certifications during your tenure as NCOIC.
• —High-risk billet personnel certification throughput meeting the wing PRO's quarterly requirement — if the PRO is calling you for a gap explanation, the gap already happened.
• —MSgt WAPS taken inside the window — PFE only at this level; pull the current AFPC promotion message and check vMPF for your sequence number.

• —Letting an instructor certification lapse because the training calendar was full and the re-evaluation kept getting pushed. A lapsed certification in a SERE section is a stop-work on that instructor and a readiness gap the PRO briefs to the wing commander.
• —Conducting a command-level Code of Conduct briefing without verifying the doctrine references are current. EO 10631 and JP 3-50 have been revised; the TSgt who briefs from an outdated version in front of a wing commander is the NCOIC who explains it afterward.
• —Hiding a training safety deviation from the section chief because the severity looked manageable at the section level. Safety deviations in a SERE training environment go up the chain, completely documented, before the next iteration.
• —Building EPBs without measurable input from the SSgts you rate. The senior rater quietly downgrades bullets that cannot be backed with documented student outcomes.
• —Treating the SNCOA / MSgt WAPS / career-broadening conversation as three sequential problems. The TSgt who runs them in parallel pins MSgt earlier; the one who runs them in series is explaining the arc to the Functional Manager.

The good TSgt 1T0X1 is the section NCOIC the wing Personnel Recovery Officer names when the MAJCOM asks who runs the SERE certification program — and whose section has never had a lapsed instructor certification or an unresolved safety finding during an active training event. The EPBs are defensible, the SSgt bench is studying for WAPS, the SNCOA packet is in, and the Functional Manager has already had the MSgt broadening conversation — JPRA, AETC instructor development, joint billet, or a unit with a SERE-integrated personnel recovery mission.

You are the SERE flight superintendent or the senior 1T0X1 enlisted leader at a major command, JPRA, or joint personnel recovery cell. The squadron commander and the wing Personnel Recovery Officer name you in the slide and the AFPC Functional Manager is building the SMSgt board case quarter by quarter.

You are the flight superintendent in a SERE squadron — or you are sitting a Functional Manager billet at AFPC, a JPRA senior staff position, a career-broadening assignment at an AETC instructor development unit, or a joint personnel recovery assignment at a combatant command or theater SOC. In the flight superintendent role you run 15-40 Airmen across the SSgt and TSgt bench, you write four-to-five EPB / Stratification reports per cycle that shape the next TSgt and MSgt slates, and you defend the flight's instructor certification posture, training throughput, and student qualification rate to the squadron commander, the wing PRO, and the MAJCOM when the annual readiness review comes. You sit alongside the squadron commander in the Personnel Recovery integration brief. You own the flight's training safety program at the superintendent level and you sign the risk assessment before every major field training event. You mentor TSgts toward SNCOA, MSgt broadening assignments, and the SMSgt board — and you are honest about which ones are on track and which ones need a different conversation. The post-AF transition planning window has opened: the CCAF associate is done, the bachelor's should be in motion.

• 01Run a SERE flight superintendent's portfolio — instructor certification currency, training throughput metrics, EPB / Stratification slate, training safety program, readiness reporting — and brief it to the squadron commander without notes.
• 02Defend the flight's high-risk billet certification throughput at the wing PRO briefing and the MAJCOM annual personnel recovery readiness review — in numbers, not adjectives.
• 03Brief the wing commander, combatant command J3, or JPRA leadership on the 1T0X1 enlisted force posture: instructor certification pipeline health, flight manning, broadening gaps, and the SMSgt board candidate pool.
• 04Mentor TSgts through SNCOA, the MSgt broadening slate, and the SMSgt board case — being honest about the timeline, the competition level, and which broadening assignments actually build the case.
• 05Run the flight's training safety program at the superintendent level: review all field evolution risk assessments before execution, review every deviation report before it goes to the squadron commander, and brief the trend to the wing safety officer.
• 06Translate personnel recovery doctrine and SERE instructor force capability into enlisted-talent decisions at the flight level — who broadens, who stays line, who goes to JPRA, who is the SMSgt bench.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — you audit at the flight superintendent level; 9-skill (1T091) upgrade documentation in motion.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) and JP 3-50 — the doctrine pair you enforce at the flight level and brief at the wing and MAJCOM level.
• —DAFMAN 36-2406 — Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems: four-to-five EPB / Stratification per cycle; verify current revision on e-Publishing.
• —DAFI 36-2502 — Enlisted Promotions: SMSgt board mechanics — the board reads the package; know what the Functional Manager is weighing.
• —AFPC-published Functional Manager guidance for the 1T0X1 enlisted workforce: accession targets, instructor pipeline throughput requirements, broadening assignment priority.
• —JPRA-published Personnel Recovery doctrine and standards: verify current edition; the flight superintendent who is behind the current JPRA doctrine is behind the PRO at the wing and the J3 at the combatant command.

• —SNCOA graduate — resident or correspondence; verify current Senior NCO PME requirements on MyFSS / e-Publishing.
• —CCAF associate complete; bachelor's in active progress if SMSgt / CMSgt-track.
• —Flight instructor certification rate at 100% — no lapsed certifications at the superintendent level; one lapsed certification that surfaces in a MAJCOM review is a flight superintendent accountability conversation.
• —EPB / Stratification slate producing TSgt selectees at or above the squadron average — the Functional Manager tracks this.
• —Career-broadening assignment completed or on the SMSgt board case slate — JPRA, AETC instructor development, combatant command personnel recovery cell, joint billet.

• —Discovering a systematic certification lapse pattern in the section — an instructor renewal cycle that keeps slipping — and fixing it quietly without briefing the squadron commander. The MAJCOM readiness review finds the pattern and asks why the flight superintendent did not.
• —Letting the senior TSgt carry the technical depth of the flight's SERE instruction load while you focus on the SMSgt package. The flight is the package — the SMSgt board reads the flight's certification record and safety history before the bullets.
• —Building EPB / Stratification reports without measurable input from the TSgts you rate. The senior rater quietly downgrades bullets that cannot be backed with documented training outcomes.
• —Treating the career-broadening conversation with your TSgts as transactional. The MSgts you mentor are the SMSgt bench for the 1T0X1 AFSC over the next decade.
• —Confusing the superintendent role with technical authority over doctrine. JP 3-50 and the JPRA standards evolve; the MSgt who stopped reading the updates five years ago is behind the PRO at the wing before they know it.

The good MSgt 1T0X1 is the flight superintendent the squadron commander and the wing PRO both name when the MAJCOM asks who runs the SERE instructor force — and whose flight has never had a lapsed instructor certification or an unresolved training safety finding during their tenure. Findings are zero, the TSgt bench is pinning on first or second looks, SNCOA is done, the associate is on the wall, and a career-broadening assignment is either complete or on the SMSgt board slate. The Functional Manager has the SMSgt case half-built two cycles before the board.

You are the squadron superintendent, the AFSC Functional Manager at AFPC, the senior 1T0X1 enlisted advisor at JPRA, or the senior personnel recovery enlisted leader at a combatant command. The Air Force Personnel Recovery enterprise runs through your decisions on who gets trained, who gets certified, and who goes where.

As a SMSgt you are the superintendent of a SERE squadron or training group, the senior enlisted leader of a SERE-integrated unit at a MAJCOM or theater command, or a senior JPRA staff position overseeing the Personnel Recovery instructor pipeline. As a CMSgt you are the AFSC Functional Manager at AFPC, the senior enlisted advisor at JPRA, a NAF or MAJCOM command chief with personnel recovery as a core portfolio, or the senior 1T0X1 enlisted voice in a combatant command joint personnel recovery cell. You set the standard for the 1T0X1 enlisted workforce: accession pipeline health, instructor certification throughput, CFETP currency, career-broadening sequence, the SMSgt and CMSgt board slate, and the senior NCO bench for the AFSC across the Air Force. You sit alongside O-5s, O-6s, and the wing and MAJCOM leadership in the Personnel Recovery integration brief. You write SMSgt and CMSgt board endorsements that determine who sits the next CMSgt slate. You walk the line during the MAJCOM IG cycle at the SERE program scope. And — two to three years before you separate — the post-AF transition runway is being built: the bachelor's or master's in adult education, leadership, human performance, or a related field; the federal civil-service bridge to a training or education-adjacent GS position; or a defense contractor billet in the personnel recovery or SERE training space.

• 01Run a squadron or training group superintendent's portfolio — instructor certification currency, training safety culture, EPB / Stratification slate, accession and broadening pipeline, retention — and brief it to the wing or MAJCOM without notes.
• 02Brief the MAJCOM commander, JPRA leadership, or combatant command J3 on the 1T0X1 enlisted force posture: instructor pipeline health, manning against high-risk billet certification demand, broadening gaps, and the CMSgt board candidate pool.
• 03Write SMSgt and CMSgt board endorsements that the board can defend at AFPC — unit-impact-driven bullets, honest readiness assessment, no Senior-NCO boilerplate.
• 04Mentor the next MSgt and SMSgt bench: career-broadening sequence, education timeline, CMSgt board posture, and the post-AF transition runway — including the federal civil-service bridge, the defense contractor landscape, and the adult education or human performance academic path.
• 05Set the standard for the 1T0X1 instructor certification pipeline: identify accession-to-certification throughput gaps, brief the bottleneck to AFPC and JPRA leadership, and build the fix before the MAJCOM asks for one.
• 06Represent the 1T0X1 enlisted workforce at AFPC functional conferences, JPRA working groups, and MAJCOM personnel recovery integration reviews — carrying the field's input into the policy decisions that affect the career 1T0X1 Airman who does not have a seat at that table.

• —CFETP 1T0X1 — you own the field-level audit posture and provide Functional Manager input on CFETP revisions.
• —Executive Order 10631 (Code of Conduct, as amended) and JP 3-50 — the foundational doctrine pair the entire AFSC exists to deliver. Know the current editions at the policy level, not just the instructional level.
• —DAFMAN 36-2406 — Officer and Enlisted Evaluation Systems: SMSgt / CMSgt-level endorsements; verify current revision on e-Publishing.
• —DAFI 36-2502 — Enlisted Promotions: SMSgt / CMSgt board mechanics; Functional Manager nomination weight.
• —AFPC Functional Manager guidance for the 1T0X1 enlisted workforce; JPRA-published Personnel Recovery doctrine and instructor standards; theater PRO integration requirements at combatant command level.
• —Chief Leadership Course reading list for CMSgt selectees; AFI 91-202 and AFI 91-204 for the training safety program you own at the senior enlisted scope.

• —Chief Leadership Course complete for CMSgt selectees before pin-on; SNCOA completed earlier in the career arc.
• —CCAF associate complete; bachelor's complete; master's in adult education, human performance, leadership, or a related field in motion or complete if CMSgt / Functional Manager track.
• —Squadron or training group instructor certification rate and training safety record clean during your tenure — zero MAJCOM IG findings attributable to certification management or training safety under your watch.
• —EPB / Stratification slate producing MSgt and SMSgt selectees at rates the Functional Manager cites in workforce planning briefs.
• —Zero senior-NCO-level integrity, OPSEC, or program-security incidents. One ends the career permanently and at this level it ends it publicly — the 1T0X1 community is small and the JPRA and combatant command leadership know every CMSgt in the field by name.

• —Pretending to be current on SERE instructional doctrine when you have been in staff billets for several years. The MSgt who is still teaching knows the current lesson plan; the CMSgt who stopped being current 10 years ago loses credibility in the training floor conversation the moment the journeyman asks a doctrine-specific question.
• —Letting the squadron or training group certification pipeline drift because "the section NCOICs own it." You own the institutional culture that makes certification management a priority — the Functional Manager and JPRA read the pipeline health before they call.
• —Building SMSgt or CMSgt board endorsements from memory or from the subordinate's self-input alone. The endorsement you write is the most consequential document in the career of the person it covers — it deserves three drafts, an honest readiness conversation, and specific language the board can defend.
• —Treating the post-AF transition runway as a retirement conversation to have in the last 12 months. The degree, the certification bridge, and the federal or contractor network take two to three years to build correctly — start earlier than you think you need to.
• —Going public with disagreement over a MAJCOM or JPRA leadership call on SERE program structure or policy. Take it in the office. Walk out aligned. The CMSgt community in 1T0X1 is small enough that a public disagreement is known at every major command within 48 hours, and the Functional Manager is one of the people who hears it.

The good SMSgt / CMSgt 1T0X1 is the senior enlisted voice the MAJCOM commander and the JPRA leadership both name when the combatant command asks who runs the Air Force SERE instructor pipeline — and whose name is also on the list of MSgts and SMSgts who pinned on first looks for the last three cycles. The certification pipeline is producing instructors, the training safety record is clean, the associate and bachelor's are on the wall, and the post-AF transition runway is already running: the master's is finishing, the federal civil-service GS application is drafted, or the defense contractor billet in the personnel recovery training space is in the queue. The AFPC Functional Manager has the CMSgt board case half-built before the package suspense lands.