The Air Force announced Tuesday it has selected 492 officers from more than 20 career fields to become squadron commanders in 2017.
The release from the Air Force Personnel Center stated that some of those selectees will get the chance to head training, recruiting and air base squadrons.
A list of selectees provided by AFPC includes 490 officers, including 12 captains, 293 majors, 184 lieutenant colonels, and 1 lieutenant colonel-select. However, some names were omitted from the list due to security reasons, according to the release.
The officers were chosen from at least 1,223 squadron commander candidates. The Air Force in October announced that officials had chosen 921 officers as candidates to become support, logistics and materiel leader squadron commands. A month later, service officials said 302 officers were candidates to become combat air forces squadron commanders.
The 731 who were not chosen could get another shot in 2017 other command vacancies open up.
"Typically, there are more qualified officers on the candidate lists than there are command vacancies to account for any unexpected contingencies during the year," AFPC said.
The list of officers chosen to be squadron commanders can be found here.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
