Air Force announces launch of improved myDecs

New year, new myDec.

Airmen and parents can now try out an improved version of myDecorations, the Department of the Air Force's online hub for processing award nominations, the department announced in a release Thursday.

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For airmen and guardians seeking recognition for good deeds that will help them climb the career ladder, countless technical flaws and an unfriendly user interface have turned a seemingly simple process into an abhorrent chore. The new features aim to solve these issues and make myDecs a seamless portal for nominating troops for several service-level and joint awards and adding them to a service member's official military record. .

The review is part of a broader effort to streamline more than 100 software apps across the Air Force and Space Force human resources departments that store soldiers' personal data and record their professional lives.

“Our goal is to make the system more intuitive and create a smoother process for users,” Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, the Air Force's chief of uniformed human resources, said in the release.

The redesigned software, called “myDecs Reimagined,” will allow troops to submit decoration requests through a single screen instead of the previous multi-page process. This interface is handled by Salesforce, the same business IT contractor that hosts the Air Force's myEval performance review system.

Now, service members will be able to route their applications to anyone on myFSS, the Air Force's comprehensive human resources platform, and recommenders will be able to choose who will approve their decorations when they create their applications.

Decorations can be edited until they are signed, and users can add comments throughout the process. Once approved, the award is added directly to the person's official military record.

The previous software made it difficult for members of different departments to collaborate on award nominations, and also did not allow users to correct mistakes after a draft was submitted. Airmen have struggled to get myDec to save draft changes and withdraw submitted requests, among other issues.

“If you build your plane using myFSS, myEval, myDecs method [were] If it had been built, our pilots would have died,” one person said in an anonymous post on the unofficial “Air Force amn/nco/snco” Facebook page in November 2022.

The update also automates steps in the process that were previously handled by a local team known as Military Flight. Airmen complain that routing requests through human resources personnel causes delays that can negatively impact promotion chances.

The Air Force said in a statement that eliminating the practice of requiring personnel personnel to review each nomination after approval “will strengthen their advisory and auditing role” and allow them to focus on strengthening “recognition programs.” He said it would be.

“Trust and responsibility is now shifted back to the approving authority and records are now automatically updated upon signing,” Miller said.

I have some bad news. Recommendations that remained in the queue before the new myDecs launched will not be migrated to the new system and will have to be resubmitted, the Aviation Reserve Officers and Personnel Center warned in a memo last November.

“All decorations that were in the legacy myDecs application will be lost at sunset on January 14th and will not be recoverable,” said Air Force spokesman Master Sgt. Deanna Heitzman confirmed Friday. “All force support companies were tasked with developing local forces.” [rules] This is to ensure that the current queue is cleared and new decorations are preserved until the launch of myDecs Reimagined. ”

Airmen and parents now use myDec to request recognition for awards such as the Aerospace Achievement Medal, Aerospace Commendation Medal, Aerospace Achievement Medal, Air Achievement Medal, Military Volunteer Excellence Medal, and Combat Readiness Medal. can do. medal.

The Department of the Air Force said as the program matures, it may give soldiers the ability to request additional honors.