Book excerpt: You’re considering joining or joined the United States Air Force (USAF). You desire to put your best foot forward at your new job and achieve a rewarding career. To rally toward your goal, “march in step’ ---work as a team---with proven strategies of success to “close ranks”---get and stay ahead in your career---for building your leadership skills and earning your next stripe. This scaled down, second book in the Career Progression Guide for Airmen series ‘cuts to the chase’ and walks you through career progression steps –from A to Z – allowing you to still hone in on the hard-core information for leadership and promotion increase opportunities. As you near the milestone of making the next rank, it then becomes a stepping stone for you to further mission accomplishment and see, sense, and smell a ‘rewarding career’ fi nish line. You’re also supplied with coaching and mentoring you must have for growth and value as a professional Airmen. The Basics features inspirational lead-off chapter quotes, step-by-step arrangement of the performance report’s accomplishment bullet statement’ sequence, which is important for documenting your job performance, and a 6-point key summary to reinforce your learning and help you to keep your job and career goals in sight. From goal setting, successfully performing to meet expectations, to serving others and self, “The Basics” cuts to the quick and provides you the means to get the job done well and touch and taste the promotion you earn! Chief Master Sergeant Mark C. Overton, USAF (Retired), is a graduate of the USAF Chiefs’ Leadership Course and earned a masters degree in computer resources and information management. During his twenty six years in the Air Force, Chief Overton’s background includes various duties in 25 communications-computer systems assignments and deployments at the unit, wing and numbered air force levels. Offering a rare perspective of serving as a chief master sergeant, retiree, key spouse mentor, and federal civilian employee, he has penned commentaries on leadership