My Service School OSR Update
I’m in zone for O6 in February, and I’ve attended a number of service schools recently, necessitating an update to my Officer Service Record (OSR). It took months and as the guy who wrote the Promo Prep, it was interesting to actually experience. Here’s how it went down…
This is what the service schools section of my OSR looked like at the start:
“NWC OFFCAMP SE” was added automatically (how nice is that!) in June when I completed JPME I via the Fleet Seminar Program, but the rest are quite old from 2011, 2002, and 2001.
This year I attended the MHS Capstone, Interagency Institute for Federal Healthcare Executives, and Navy Senior Legal Course, all of which are service schools but were not automatically added to my OSR.
How does the guy who wrote the Promo Prep update his service schools? Realizing that nothing is perfect, it might not work the first time, it’ll probably take quite a while, and wanting to get it over with, I used the e-mail, fax, and mailing option discussed in the Promo Prep all at the same time. Once and done! If it didn’t work, I was just going to send a letter to the board.
So, on one day after completing the courses I e-mailed, faxed, and snail mailed the required information.
First I got this:
I’m not sure if the address I have is wrong or the USPS just didn’t like my abbreviations, but the snail mail attempt clearly didn’t work.
Next, I started getting strange e-mails reminiscent of the ones you get when you put in a trouble ticket on your computer. I’m not sure if this was from the e-mail submission, the fax submission, or both. Here’s what one of them looked like:
From: ITSM Do Not Reply [mailto:DoNotReply@navy.mil]
To: Schofer, Joel M CDR USN NAVHOSP PORS VA (US)
Subject: Incident INC000002230401 with a Priority of Low has been logged for your issue
Importance: High
Incident INC000002230401 with a Priority of Low has been logged for your issue. This number should be retained for reference purposes.
Customer Site:
Product Type: Software
Nomenclature:
Common Name: CDM
Product Categorization Tier 2: ODC
Product Categorization Tier 3: SERVICE SCHOOL
Product Name:
Model/Version:
System Model Number:
Urgency: 4-Low
Status: Assigned
Summary: SERVICE SCHOOL (ODC BLK 52)
Notes: Request to add service school to Officer Data Card (ODC) to reflect course number 595, SEP 2017, 1 WK
We look forward to providing you continued support.
I particularly like the part where they say my request is low priority.
They then told me I already had too many service schools and needed to pick which ones I wanted:
From: ITSM Do Not Reply [mailto:DoNotReply@navy.mil]
To: Schofer, Joel M CDR USN NAVHOSP PORS VA (US)
Subject: INC000002211696
CDR Schofer,
A maximum of seven service schools can be assigned and you currently have seven. Please indicate which service schools 04D and 059 will replace on your ODC.
Send information to Xxxx.Xxxx.ctr@navy.mil. Reference incident number 2211696 in the subject line.
Wow! A person who is going to help me resolve this problem. My faith in the system has been restored.
I told them to just remove the oldest service schools and replace them with the new ones. I then got this message:
From: ITSM Do Not Reply <DoNotReply@navy.mil>
To: CDR Joel Schofer
Subject: Incident INC000002230401 reported by you has been resolved. SERVICE SCHOOL (ODC BLK 52)
ReplyTo: ITSM Do Not Reply <DoNotReply@navy.mil>
Dear JOEL SCHOFER,
We are pleased to inform you that your reported Incident has been resolved.
Reference No.: INC000002230401
Summary: SERVICE SCHOOL (ODC BLK 52)
Your reported Incident has been resolved with the following resolution: CDR Schofer,
Your online record has been updated to include service school code 595. Allow at least two weeks for changes to reflect on your ODC after online systems update.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Service Desk should there be any further questions or inquiries regarding your Incident. Please quote your assigned Reference Number.
Yours sincerely, Service Desk
This is what the final product looked like:
As you can see, my three new service schools are all there, and my record is ready for my O6 board. It took about 3 months in total, and involved a returned envelope and some strange e-mails, but thanks to whoever at NSIPS addressed this issue for me.
