TOP HAND board to convene Nov. 6 Published Oct. 3, 2007 PETERSON AFB, Colo. -- The next TOP HAND board is scheduled to convene Nov. 6 to select five officers for positions in the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and nine officers for vacancies in the 17th Test Squadron at Schriever AFB. TOP HAND applicants must be captains in the space and missile or missile maintenance career fields with four to eight years of commissioned service and three years of experience in their core Air Force specialty, including instructor or evaluator experience. Packages must be received by HQ AFSPC/A3 by Oct. 22. Demonstrated leadership skills, proven technical expertise, strong briefing skills and squadron officer school completion are highly desired. Emergency War Order experience is desired for assignment to the 576th FLTS. Officers are not eligible if they have an open unfavorable information file or a referral officer performance report within the last three years, have an established retirement or separation date or have a pending assignment. Officers with less than four years time on station may compete provided no money will be spent for permanent-change-of-station moves. Officers who require money for PCS moves must reach four years time on station before May 31, 2008, or be eligible to move within the next fiscal year. Group commanders or above may request waivers to these requirements; AFSPC/A3T is the approval authority. Officers competing for a TOP HAND assignment must be nominated via a board-specific development plan. Group commanders or above must submit the development plan for each nominated officer. Each officer's package must include a copy of the officer's development plan and record, including all performance and training reports from beginning of commissioned service to Oct. 21, 2007. The board will not consider any other documents. TOP HAND offers testing experience, promotes professional and technical development, and opens up unique staff officer opportunities. The 576th FLTS plans and performs the Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed ICBM force development evaluation test program and executes AFSPC's operational tests for the Department of Defense. The 17th TS has detachments located at Buckley AFB, Colo., Patrick AFB, Fla., and Vandenberg AFB in addition to its primary location at Schriever. The squadron is responsible for planning, executing and reporting on all force development evaluation, tactics and concepts testing, and command-directed testing of AFSPC's space assets. For information contact Capt. Justin McMillian at 554-3357, or Maj. Marty Easter at 554-3761.