Air Force EPB Examples: What to Write in Each Performance Area

When the Air Force replaced the EPR with the EPB, the rule of thumb changed: it's no longer about cramming a perfectly-formatted bullet into 30 characters. The new AF Form 910 asks for narrative content broken into discrete performance areas, each with its own character budget and its own implicit question for the rater. Treating every block the same way is how good Airmen end up with average EPBs.

This guide covers the four primary performance areas on the current AF Form 910 (enlisted EPB) — Major Duties and Responsibilities, Leadership and Followership, Whole Airman Concept and Resource Stewardship, and Exceeded Expectations — with weak and strong examples for each.

How raters actually read an EPB

Raters and additional raters spend roughly 90 seconds on a first pass through an EPB. They scan top to bottom looking for:

1. Numbers. Dollar amounts, percentages, rankings, people impacted.
2. Action verbs at the start of paragraphs. Anything that opens with "Responsible for" gets discounted immediately.
3. The Exceeded Expectations block. This is where Strats and decorations come from. A weak entry here flattens an otherwise good EPB.

Write for that scanning pattern. Front-load each block with the strongest signal.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

What the rater wants: Scope. Who do you work for, what do you own, how big is the responsibility? This is the context-setting block — the rest of the EPB is graded against the scale you establish here.

Weak:

Performs duties as Cyber Operations Specialist; responsible for network monitoring and troubleshooting on assigned systems

Strong:

Senior Cyber Operations technician; safeguards 1.4K nodes / 87 servers worth $4.2M; protects DOD Top Secret network supporting 12 mission partners across 3 AORs

The weak version describes the title. The strong version describes the scope. The scope is what calibrates everything that follows.

Leadership and Followership

What the rater wants: Times when you led without being told to, or followed in a way that made the team better. Volunteer roles, additional duties, mentorship, and stand-out support to the chain go here.

Weak:

Strong leader; mentors junior Airmen and assists supervisors when needed

Strong:

Volunteered as Squadron PT leader during shop manning gap; led 36 Airmen through 4-month cycle, raised PT pass rate 78% → 96% — Commander's Choice for shop excellence Coached 4 SrA through CDC; all PFE first-time pass, 2 selected below-the-zone — set baseline for shop training program

Two specific stories beat a paragraph of generalities. The strong version proves leadership by outcome, not by self-description.

Whole Airman Concept and Resource Stewardship

What the rater wants: Off-duty education and volunteerism, plus how well you managed the money, time, and equipment you touched. The Air Force has been steadily increasing the weight of this block — raters care about Airmen who develop themselves and the unit.

Weak:

Pursues education and supports base community

Strong:

Completed 12 credit hours toward CCAF Information Systems Tech (3.94 GPA, Dean's List); 2 classes from degree Led shop's $84K annual budget through Q3 execution; identified $11K in over-procured spares, returned to wing — funded 2 SSgt PME slots Coached base FLL robotics team 4 hrs/wk for 14 weeks; team placed 2nd at regionals, earned base STEM Recognition Award

Three short paragraphs, each with a number, each with a different facet (education / stewardship / community). That's the structure raters expect.

Exceeded Expectations

What the rater wants: Your top three accomplishments of the cycle, with explicit stratification. This is the block that drives Strats, decoration recommendations, and below-the-zone selection. Treat it like the awards section it functionally is.

Weak:

Top performer; selected for multiple awards and recognitions

Strong:

#1 of 14 SrA in shop — earned NCO of the Quarter (1st of 47 squadron-wide), AFAM nominee for cyber mission-defense innovation, and Wing Spotlight feature Diagnosed 18-month-recurring network latency as misconfigured load balancer when entire NOC team missed it; saved 340 user-hours/week across mission partners, $214K productivity recovery Designed and taught 6-block cyber-defense course to 28 sister-unit operators; course adopted as AETC Mission Defense Team standard curriculum — first SrA-authored TTP in Wing history

Three paragraphs, each one a podium-finish accomplishment, each one with stratification ("1st of 47," "first in Wing history") and a quantified result. If you have three of these for a cycle, you have an EPB that drives a decoration.

What to do when your cycle was quiet

Not every cycle has three podium-finish moments. When the rating period was light, focus on:

• Sustained excellence. A quiet cycle where you didn't drop a beat is itself an outcome. "Sustained 100% on-time deliverable rate across 14 quarterly inspections" is a legitimate Exceeded Expectations entry.
• Off-duty wins. Education, certifications, community leadership, and resilience contributions all count.
• Process improvements. Did you eliminate a recurring problem? Even a small one? Quantify the recovered time.
• Coverage. Did you cover for a vacant position? How long, how much scope, with what outcome?

Boards understand that operational tempo varies. They penalize empty EPBs, not quiet cycles.

Common mistakes that flatten EPBs

A few patterns consistently weaken otherwise strong content:

• Passive voice. "Was selected to" beats nothing, but "Selected by Wing/CC to" beats "Was selected to."
• Vague magnitudes. "Multiple," "various," "many," "significant," "numerous" — replace each one with a number.
• Duty description in the Leadership block. Your duty title is in the Major Duties block. Don't repeat it.
• Buried Strats. If you earned a Strat, the words "1st of [N]" or "Top X%" should appear in the Exceeded Expectations block. Don't make the rater dig for it.

Let RapidEPR do the formatting

The hardest part of the EPB isn't the content — it's hitting the right register and the right character count for each block while keeping the bullet sharp. That's exactly what RapidEPR is built for. Pick the format (EPB, OPB, EPB Narrative V1/V2, ALQ, HLR, Duty Description), drop in what you did, and get a clean draft in seconds.

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