RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE.

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Chief Master Sgt Gregory Haley is recovering from making a list and checking it twice. No, the chief's not a Santa wannabe, unless he helped bring early Christmas not past nor futures to nearly 21,000 airmen last month

From his office unfathomable in the bowels of the Air Force Personnel Center Haley and his 24-person staff cause "The List."

In this case, it's the promotion list to staff sergeant -- something 32000 promotion-eligible senior airmen are anxiously waiting to papal court The list goes public this month

"People have this perception that the list is this magical thing produc with failure and mirrors," said Senior Master Sgt David Travis, a personnel center magician who's been working in the promotion section for brace years. "In reality, it's a database we hie that crunches numbers and fairly racks and stacks everyone eligible."

There's no wizardry involved. With a left-mouse click Travis demonstrates in what way the system works.

Haley and his folk deal with all things promotion related in the Air Force, yet the two biggest brain drains each year for his folk are the staff and technical/master sergeant lists. Each list is a full-time do job-work for several of his people

"Our enlisted corps believes in our promotion system" Haley said. "That's owing in part to the work these persons do. It's not good enough for us to have a 99 percent succes rate. We've got to be perfect"

The mountains of paperwork, facts, figures and proof scores that go into making up a promotion list are mind boggling. each promotion test taken in the field follows to Haley's staff to be scored and state in the database.

"There are days I go on home and have nightmares about it," said Master Sgt Dan Mendez who's been working promotions for more than a year.

The list will remain mythic, and the folk in the basement at AFPC will continue checking the list one time twice -- you get the idea.

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