Citizen Airmen gain avenue to joint credit.

Procedures are now in place to allow Air Force Reservists to self-nominate for joint experience credit, Air Reserve Personnel Center officials said.

ARPC received the necessary reserve component implementation guidance March 28 from the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. This interim guidance to the Joint Qualification System outlines the joint credit criteria for Citizen Airmen serving in joint assignments less than full time.

"JQS is important because it allows the Defense Department to better incorporate an officer's joint experiences and qualifications into assignment, promotion and development decisions," said Maj. Eric Levesque, chief of ARPC's Force Development Division.

Citizen Airmen can self-nominate online at http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/ appj/jmis/JQSindex.jsp.

JQS, which went into effect Oct. 1, provides a structure to recognize the expeditionary and inherently joint nature of military operations in the 21st century.

Previously, only officers who were assigned to a joint duty assignment could become joint qualified, but this changed with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2007.

To progress through the four levels of joint qualification, officers must complete the required joint education and fulfill the criteria of either the standard path or the experience path.

The standard path requires serving in a joint duty assignment list position. Officers serving part time must serve at least 66 days a year in a JDAL position. Colonels and below must serve a cumulative total of six years in JDAL positions. General officers must serve a cumulative total of four years in general officer or above JDAL positions.

The experience path means service in a non-JDAL position for which an officer may request the experience be considered for award of joint experience points. It allows point accumulation through a combination of shorter joint assignments, exercises and training.

"This change makes reserve component participation more feasible," Major Levesque said. "It's the way Citizen Airmen typically serve: a few months here, a few days there. It all adds up to great experience."

The experience-based system awards points in tracking the progression through successive qualification levels, while accounting for the intensity, environment, duration and frequency of each joint activity.

Joint experience must include duties related to the achievement of unified action by multiple military forces in the areas of national military strategy, strategic and contingency planning, command and control of operations under unified command, national security planning with other departments or agencies, and combined operations with military forces of allied nations.

Typically within two weeks of a Reserve officer self-nominating for joint credit, ARPC officials review the application and collect supporting documentation. They present qualifying packages to quarterly joint panels.

JQS includes a grandfather clause permitting retroactive point credit dating back to Oct. 1, 1986, for reserve component officers and Sept. 11, 2001, for active-duty officers. (Senior Master Sgt. Kelly Mazezka, ARPC public affairs)