MilPDS to shut down for upgrades Published Feb. 1, 2013 By Senior Airman Saphfire Cook 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. -- The Military Personnel Data System will be shut down for upgrades and migration to the Defense Information Systems Agency Defense Enterprise Computing Center March 4-27. Airmen who are PCSing, retiring, separating, re-enlisting or extending in the month of March must complete all related actions before the scheduled upgrades. "Members are asked to be proactive and visit the myPers website as the first stop to learn about the process," said Tech. Sgt. Cristina Gutierrez, 355th Force Support Squadron non-commissioned officer in charge of Career Development. Updates to personnel information will not be processed during the migration process. Assignments, separations, re-enlistments and promotions will not update in the official personnel system until upgrades are accomplished. "For promotions, you can only be entered into the system as a different rank when you have sewn on," said Gutierrez. "Once upgrades are done, you will be backdated as having made rank the day that you sewed on." Once the system upgrades are complete, the Military Personnel Section plans to update the affected member's information within 10 days of the migration. MPS asks Airmen to be flexible and patient during this transition, and to keep copies of all documents submitted to MilPDS. "We do not know what challenges we will face during and after the migration, but we will do our best to assist our Airmen," Gutierrez said. MPS will be undergoing hardware updates in addition to the software improvements MilPDS will be receiving. "The current version of MilPDS is no longer compatible with the Air Force's demands and needs," Gutierrez said. "For instance, Airmen can now extend up to 48 months, where it used to be up to 23 months. The program has not been updated since that change, so there's no option to select anything above 23 month." The last MilPDS software upgrade was completed in 2001.