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The Top 5 Critical FITREP Mistakes
When I was a Detailer, I would review a lot of records for people who failed to promote. Over and over again I would see FITREPs that reflected poorly on the officer. A lot of the time they didn’t realize it was even an issue, and sometimes they did it to themselves. Here are the top 5 FITREP mistakes you want to make sure you don’t make:
- Getting anything other than an early promote (EP) when you are getting a 1/1 FITREP, also known as an “air bubble.”
If you are the only officer in your competitive category (meaning that you aren’t competing against anyone on that FITREP), make sure you get an EP. Just like a single air bubble, you should “rise to the top” and get an EP. If you don’t get the air bubble and get a promotable (P) or must promote (MP), it reflects poorly on you unless it is CLEARLY EXPLAINED in the narrative why you are getting a P or MP. Here you can see an officer who got a 1/1 MP in his/her last FITREP and how it would be noted at a promotion board:
For example, if your reporting senior doesn’t give newly promoted officers an EP, your narrative should say something like, “Newly promoted officers do not receive EP rankings.” Sometimes this happens because your reporting senior is an officer from another service and he/she doesn’t understand the “Navy rules” for FITREPs. Sometimes it happens because either you or your reporting senior wants to give you a P or MP so you can “show progression” and get an EP. If you want to show progression, do it on the overall marks, not the final promotion recommendation. For example, give yourself a 4.0 EP, then a 4.17 EP, and finally a 4.33 EP. DO NOT give yourself a P or MP if you are getting a 1/1 FITREP.
- Both officers in a competitive group of 2 getting a MP FITREP.
If you are in a competitive group of 2, your reporting senior should give 1 of you an EP and the other a MP. If he/she gives you both a MP, it reflects poorly on both of you. Most often this will happen at an operational command and/or when there are 2 officers who are competing but are in the same promotion year group. Make sure your reporting senior doesn’t take the easy road and give you both a MP. One of you should get the EP, and the other can get a MP with a strong narrative explaining why.
- Declining from an EP to an MP without changing competitive groups (or “moving to the left”).
Most often I would see this when a resident who was in a large competitive group was given an EP FITREP. Then when they graduate from residency, their competitive group shrinks and they don’t get an EP but are left with an MP. Here’s what it looks like on when projected at the promotion board:
If I was you, I’d fight this like a dog. If they can’t keep you at an EP and you didn’t do anything wrong to deserve this, make sure the reason for your drop from an EP to a MP is clearly explained in the FITREP narrative.
If this happens to you because you are changing competitive groups, like when you get promoted or move from residency/fellowship to a staff physician at the same institution, it is not a black mark in any way and is expected.
- Not getting a 5.0 in Leadership.
If you are writing your own FITREP, you can’t give yourself a 5.0 in every category, but of all the categories Leadership is probably the most important one. Make sure you give yourself a 5.0 in Leadership because that is what the promotion board is looking to promote, future leaders. Having less than a 5.0 can send a bad message to the board.
Sometimes you have no control over this, and sometimes you may deserve less than a 5.0 in Leadership, but do your best to get a 5.0 there if at all possible.
- Giving yourself an overall trait average less than your reporting senior’s average.
Every reporting senior has an overall trait average for each rank that includes all of the FITREPs that they’ve done for that rank. You want to try and find out what it is.
While a reporting senior can look up their average on BOL, you can’t. You can, though, see it on your Performance Summary Record if you’ve received a FITREP from them at your current rank. Although it changes every time they do more FITREPs, their average the last time they did a round of FITREPs can be found on your PSR and is highlighted below by the red arrow with blue text (this reporting senior had ranked 6 LCDRs and had an average of 3.50 at that time) on one of the slides from my FITREP video podcast:
If you have never received a FITREP from your reporting senior at your current rank, maybe your one of your friends has. The other way to find out their average is to ask your chain-of-command. Someone, usually the command’s FITREP coordinator, will know their average for your rank.
It is probably obvious that once you find out their average, you’d like to make sure you are above it. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to be above it because you are getting a P and/or you deserve to be below it, but make sure you don’t rank yourself below it if given the chance to write your own FITREP.
In summary, those are the top 5 FITREP mistakes I often see. If you are interested in learning more, grab a copy of your FITREP and watch this video podcast. In 45 minutes you’ll know everything you need to know to write effective FITREPs.
Senior Operational Opportunities for Summer 2016
Here are some new opportunities. If you are interested, contact your Detailer:
1. CTF 76 Surgeon – Medical representative to admiral’s staff currently located at White Beach, Okinawa. The medical staff includes a Medical Planner (O-4 Billet), a Task Force IDC (E-8 Billet) and a Medical Inspector (E-7 IDC based in Sasebo). Responsibilities include being ISIC for the ships within CTF 76. There are 9 total (1 LHD, 1 LPD, 2 LSDs, and 4 MCMs based in Sasebo and 1 LCC in Yokosuka). CTF 76 Surgeon is Medical OPCON to all amphibious ships transiting through the 7th Fleet AOR and aid in any MEDEVAC issues that develop while ships are transiting the AOR. The CTF 76 Surgeon is responsible for monitoring the ships’ Medical Readiness and acting as clinical supervisor for the SMOs, GMOs and IDCs. CTF 76 Surgeon has a significant role in the planning and execution of the medical aspects for wartime contingencies, Pacific theater exercises, and in the event of natural disaster, the planning and execution of the medical portion of HA/DR.
2. OIC FST-7 – FST 7 is a 16 member surgical team that deploys aboard USS BONHOMME RICHARD (BHR). The team consists of 1 Surgeon, 1 Nurse Anesthetist, 1 OR nurse, 1 ICU Nurse, 1 Family Practitioner, 1 MRCO (Medical Regulating Control Officer) and 9 Corpsmen. The OIC is responsible for the credentialing, evaluations, fitness reports and training of team members. When not underway on the ship, FST 7 is ADDU to USNH Okinawa in order to maintain their skills and proficiency in their areas of expertise. There is usually a Spring Patrol (~2 months), a Fall Patrol (~3 months) and every other year a Summer deployment to Australia. This year the Summer deployment will role into the Fall Patrol with a number very exciting port visits in between. FST7 provides emergent and resuscitative surgery for Surgical Emergencies (i.e. Acute Abdomen, Trauma, etc). With FST7 aboard, BHR acts as a Level 2 trauma center and provides ICU care and stabilization for medical as well as surgical cases.
3. CPR11 Surgeon – COMPHIBRON11 is the afloat Amphibious Ready Group Commander usually embarked on the BHR. The CPR11 Surgeon is the Senior Medical authority afloat for all ships OPCON to CPR11 as well as the embarked Marine Forces (usually 31st MEU). While aboard the BHR, CPR11 Surgeon attends operations and
intelligence briefs, and provides daily updates to the COMMODORE and MEU COMMANDER on the medical status within the ARG. The FST is TAD to the BHR and reports directly to the Ship’s SMO who in turn reports to the CPR 11 Surgeon. Often while underway the CPR11 Surgeon provides medical advice for the junior GMOs and IDCs aboard the ships within the ARG. The CPR11 Surgeon with the MRCO coordinates all MEDEVACs from ARG Shipping. CPR11 has a busy deployment schedule and participates in many 7th Fleet exercises to include PHIBLEX (Philippines), COBRA GOLD (Thailand) and Talisman Saber (Australia).
FY16 Special Pays NAVADMIN Released
Per the BUMED Special Pays website (http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/default.aspx):
8 Sep 2015: The FY16 Medical Special Pays NAVADMIN 212/15 has been released. FY16 Special Pay requests can now be submitted in accordance with OPNAVINST 7220.16. Submit requests no earlier than 60 days prior to, and no later than 30 days after the effective date. Send ALL requests and questions to the email address listed below.
Templates for submission can be found here, although your Special Pays person in PSD usually can do this for you:
http://www.med.navy.mil/bumed/Special_Pay/Pages/SpecialPaysTemplatesforSubmission.aspx
Here is the NAVADMIN. If I’m interpreting it correctly, all amounts remain the same from FY15 and can be found here, FY15 MC-DC Special Pay Implementation Guidance.
O5/O6 Leadership Opportunities for Summer 2016
Below are multiple opportunities for CDRs and CAPTs. The POC for anyone interested in any of these opportunities is your Detailer:
- Multiple USMC leadership opportunities are available in summer 2016. Requirements include at least 1 prior successful FMF tour (FMFWO preferred), a track record of successful leadership roles, and no recent BCA/PFA failures (currently meets USMC fitness/uniform standards). Interested officers need to be eligible to PCS in Summer 2016. Anyone interested should send their CV and military bio to their Detailer by COB September 2nd:
| USMC Medical Corps Leadership | |
| Billet | Date of Position Turnover |
| HQMC Health Services | |
| Deputy Director Health Services, HQMC | Jul 2016 |
| Director of Clinical Programs | Jul 2016 |
| Director of Public Health | Jul 2016 |
| II Marine Expeditionary Force | |
| 2d MLG Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
| 2d Marine Division Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
| I Marine Expeditionary Force | |
| I MEF Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
| 1st Mar Division Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
| 3d Marine Air Wing Surgeon | Jan 2016 |
| III Marine Expeditionary Force | |
| 3rd Marine Division Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
| 1st Marine Aircraft Wing Surgeon | Jul 2016 |
- The Director, Defense Health Agency (DHA) requests Service nominations to fill the 0-6 level position of Chief of Staff, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (FBCH). The position resides in the National Capital Region Medical Directorate (NCR MD) and the officer reports to the Director, FBCH. The duty station is Fort Belvoir, VA. The selected officer should plan to arrive in July 2016. Selected individual is expected to serve in the position for a minimum of 2 years from date of arrival at the DHA NCR MD. Anyone interested should send their CV and military bio to their Detailer by COB September 14th.
Sailor of 2025 Talent Management Initiatives
There are some exciting and interesting initiatives underway to modernize the Navy’s personnel system. There have been many articles on this in Navy Times. Here is one article recently released by the Military Officers Association of America.
In addition, here are some slides that describe this initiative:
The changes that physicians should be aware of, some already finalized and others representing potential changes, are:
- Pay and bonus changes that would reward individual talent rather than treat everyone the same.
- A removal of promotion zones. No longer would records be stamped as below-zone, in-zone, or above-zone during promotion boards. This would switch to a system that rewards talent and milestones rather than longevity. It would allow those that progress faster to promote faster and no longer have to “wait their turn” as well as remove the stigma that some feel is associated with being above-zone.
- Expansion of opportunities to diversify your career. Examples include an expansion of the career intermission program and fellowships providing officers with the opportunity to spend some time in civilian industry so that they can bring best practices back to the Navy.
- An information technology (IT) investment in a new, more transparent personnel management system. Ideas I have heard mentioned include eliminating all of the various computer systems that exist and consolidating them into one so that you don’t have to update your record in 20 different ways. An assignments system has also been mentioned that would allow officers to see all the billets available and apply for the ones that they want, giving commands the ability to pick which officers they want.
- Improved co-location policy. I have no details on this one, and right now I feel the detailers do a pretty good job co-locating dual active duty couples, but others may disagree.
- Changes to the physical fitness assessment/body composition assessment (PFA/BCA), which were detailed in this NAVADMIN. This includes expanded fitness center hours.
- Changes to the maternity leave policy, detailed in this NAVADMIN, and expanded child development center hours.
Keep in mind that while some of these changes have been released already, like the PFA/BCA and maternity leave policies, the rest are works in progress. I think it is interesting, though, to see that the DoD and Navy leadership are interesting in modernizing our personnel system and management. As a detailer who writes orders on a DOS-based system, I can assure you that modernization is sorely needed.
2015 Graduate Medical Education BUMED Note Released
Here is the 2015 Graduate Medical Education BUMED Note:
O5 Promotion List Released
Below this message is the O5 promotion list. For those that were selected, congratulations. Now that you are a CDR(s), you should strongly consider mixing your career up a little. No matter what you do for the next few years as a junior CDR, you’re likely to get a promotable (P) on your fitreps if you are in a competitive group. This fact makes it a great time to PCS, moving overseas or to a senior operational role if you haven’t done those tours yet. It also makes it a great time to apply for a fellowship, go to a War College, take on a job that you will enjoy but will get you 1/1 fitreps that could hurt you later in your career, or pursue anything else you can think of that is rank appropriate. Then after you spend a few years doing this, you can return to a command, try to get a senior leadership role and competitive fitreps, and give it your best shot to promote to O6.
If you did not promote, it is time to regroup. See my June 21st post entitled “You Failed to Promote…Now What?” Keep in mind, that most physicians are offered continuation until year 20 as a LCDR, so you likely have a few more chances to promote.
Once I have some time to analyze the O5 board results and get some statistics, I’ll do a more detailed post with O5 promotion board takeaways.
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