Two Senior Global Health Engagement (GHE) Positions – Senior O5/O6
There are two positions available:
- Health Affairs Attache New Zealand – Please see the position description with the expected qualifications. It is open to senior O5/O6 officers. Training for the position will ideally commence early in 2018 with the individual in country by March 2018. This is a 3 year assignment.
- Director, Training and Professional Development, Center for Global Health Engagement, USUHS – This position is open to senior O5/O6 officers. The report date is targeted for Jan 2018, and more information on the position is found in the position description. It is also a 3 year assignment.
If you need info on the Global Health Engagement community, check here. The POC for questions regarding these positions is CDR Arcelia Wicker, Deputy Director for GHE at BUMED (e-mail address is in the global address book). All interested parties need Detailer/Specialty Leader concurrence and should forward a CV/BIO and letter of intent (LOI) to their Specialty Leader by 15 November. The goal is to have the individuals identified by December.
FY18 CO/XO Slate
The FY18 CO/XO slate can be found at this website (make sure you pick your e-mail certificate):
https://esportal.med.navy.mil/bumed/m00/m00c/pages/executive-medicine.aspx
Naval Postgraduate School Executive MBA Distance Learning NAVADMIN for March 2018
This is how I got my MBA... UNCLASSIFIED ROUTINE R 121542Z SEP 17 FM CNO WASHINGTON DC TO NAVADMIN INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC BT UNCLAS PASS TO OFFICE CODES: FM CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1// INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC//N1// NAVADMIN 227/17 MSGID/GENADMIN/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/SEP// SUBJ/EXECUTIVE MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DISTANCE LEARNING DEGREE PROGRAM FOR MARCH 2018// REF/A/MSG/CNO WASHINGTON DC/N1/061710ZAUG07// AMPN/REF A IS NAVADMIN 195/07, OFFICER GRADUATE EDUCATION SERVICE OBLIGATION.// RMKS/1. This NAVADMIN announces application procedures for the March 2018 distance learning Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program. 2. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) defense-focused EMBA is a 24 month, fully-funded, part-time graduate program focused on resource management. The program targets middle to senior grade active duty officers, lieutenant commander (select) and above (LT by waiver). Classes are delivered via online technology with synchronous interaction between faculty and students. 3. The EMBA program begins with a required 1-week Temporary Additional Duty (TAD) in-residence session at NPS in Monterey, California. The week of 19 March to 23 March 2018 includes an orientation and a graduate level course on management of teams. A second week of required TAD in-residence instruction will be scheduled during the second year of the EMBA program. Other than these two visits to NPS Monterey, students complete all instruction from their home locations. A block of rooms will be reserved in Monterey for attendees during orientation. All efforts will be made to minimize TAD costs. 4. The parent command of the student will provide official travel orders and funding for TAD travel. If command funding is not available, students may fund their own travel and utilize no-cost TAD orders from their commands. 5. Active duty Navy officers accepted into the EMBA program are integrated into cohorts with civilian students. Typically, a cohort is comprised of about 25 students from which student teams are formed. Cohorts take all classes together during the 24 months of instruction. Students participate in online classes 1 day per week, approximately 6 to 7 hours per day, during regular continental United States duty hours. Students will receive instruction via online synchronous educational software, with faculty teaching every session in real time. Admission to the EMBA program is available to applicants in any geographic location, regardless of the number of applicants in a location. Since courses are delivered via online learning technologies, students must have access to a computer with high-speed internet and audio-video capabilities suitable for web-enabled interactions with instructors and students. A computer camera or webcam is required. 6. Eligibility requirements include an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited 4 year college or university, 2.6 grade point average or higher on a four point scale and at least one college-level mathematics course. A commanding officer endorsement letter is required to participate in the program. Department head or similar mid-level management experience and strong potential for promotion are preferred. Participants must have a projected rotation date no earlier than March 2020. The Graduate Management Admission Test is not required. 7. Graduates will be awarded an EMBA degree from NPS and the Navy subspecialty code 3100P, Financial Management-Defense Focus. Graduates will also earn Defense Acquisition University Level II equivalencies for all program management functional equivalencies. As directed by reference (a), officers participating in this program must agree to remain on active duty following completion of graduate studies for a period of 3 years. This obligation is discharged concurrently with any other service obligation already incurred. This agreement does not obligate the Navy to retain the officer on active duty. 8. Officers interested in the EMBA program can visit the NPS EMBA home page at www.nps.edu/emba for detailed eligibility and application process information. Deadline for the application process is no later than 4 January 2018. Online instruction begins 3 April 2018. 9. Point of contact is the NPS EMBA program office at (831) 656-2562/DSN 756, fax at (831) 656-3630/DSN 756, or via e-mail at emba(at)nps.edu. 10. This NAVADMIN will remain in effect until superseded or 30 June 2018, whichever occurs first. 11. Released by Vice Admiral R. P. Burke, N1.// BT #0001 NNNN UNCLASSIFIED//
Naval War College Phasing Out Legacy CDROM Course
From U.S. Naval War College Public Affairs
NEWPORT, R.I. (NNS) - U.S. Naval War College (NWC) will no longer enroll new students in the CDROM program offered through the school’s College of Distance Education (CDE) after Sept. 30.
The CDROM program is being phased out due to better, more interactive education delivery options and declining student enrollment.
“This CDROM program is really a legacy offering that was developed to replace a paperbased correspondence course,” said Timothy Garrold, deputy dean of the College of Distance Education at NWC. “Instead of sending students a box of books and papers and then have them submit their graded work by postal mail or fax, we sent course materials contained on CDs.”
While CDROM courses were a breakthrough at the time, they have become outdated.
As students have come to expect more speed, interaction and efficiency, the move to the web enabled programs is a better option that allows students more access to colleagues and teachers according to Garrold.
“The amount of interaction that students experience in webbased courses with other students and with faculty were really the most important factors in pressing for the change,” he said. “We were kind of fooling ourselves that a selfpaced, selftaught course had the rigor required for the same level of training and education as that available to what a student can get online and in our Fleet Seminar Program.”
Students are already frequently choosing online courses over the CDROM programs.
“The numbers have been dropping for the CDROM program,” said Garrold. “The demand signal for the CDROM has slowly declined over the years.”
Those wanting to earn the masters and their intermediate Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) credit through NWC distance education courses can still do so through the Fleet Seminar program.
Garrold explained that some resources currently devoted to the CDROM program may now be reassigned to the webbased programs making them an even faster and a better choice for students.
Students currently enrolled in the CDROM program and those who enroll prior to the deadline will still be able to finish the program within 20 months. The CDROM program will terminate entirely May 31, 2019 20 months from the Sept. 30 deadline.
Specifics of the CDROM program phase out are explained in NAVADMIN 233/17. CDE doesn’t anticipate other changes to course delivery methodologies.
NWC is a oneyear resident program that graduates about 600 resident students and about 1,000 distance learning students each year. Its primary mission is to educate and develop future leaders. Additional missions include: helping to define the future Navy and its roles and missions, supporting combat readiness, strengthening global maritime partnerships, promoting ethics and leadership throughout the force, contributing knowledge to shape effective decisions through our John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research, providing expertise and advice to the international legal community through the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law. Students earn JPME credit and either a diploma or a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies or defense and strategic studies. Established in 1884, U.S. Naval War College is the oldest institution of its kind in the world. More than 50,000 students have graduated since its first class of nine students in 1885 and about 300 of today’s active duty admirals, generals and senior executive service leaders are alumni.
Why Me? Why Can’t Someone Else Deploy?
There have been a number of posts about deployments. We talked about how to max out your TSP, how dwell time works, gear lists, how to get clinical help while deployed, and the different types of deployments. Here is another deployment mystery revealed…
OK Specialty Leader…why do I have to deploy? What about all these other people? Can’t they go?
There are many people whose turn it is to deploy but who cannot deploy. In my experience, the reasons include:
- They are pregnant or within 1 year post-partum, both of which made you non-deployable.
- They have LIMDU or medical issues that make them non-deployable.
- They are in a non-deployable position, like being a CO or working at the White House.
- They are already with an operational unit, and the operational unit controls if/when they deploy, not the Specialty Leader. For example, I can’t deploy my ER docs who are stationed with the Marines. The Marines decide when they deploy, not me.
- They have an upcoming resignation/retirement/PCS. You have to have at least 90 days left between the end of a deployment and your end of service or upcoming PCS.
- They are in GME. Residents and fellows are non-deployable.
- They have legal issues that keep them from deploying.
In addition to the factors listed above that make someone non-deployable, there are limitations on:
- Rank – You can only go +/- one rank without a waiver. In other words, if the deployment is for a LCDR you can go down one to a LT or up one to a CDR. You can’t send a CAPT without a waiver, which might not be approved.
- Security clearances – If people have an expired or soon-to-be expired security clearance, it can be a problem.
- Manning in the various commands – As the Emergency Medicine Specialty Leader, which doctor I select to deploy often has more to do with the physician manning in the various ERs than whose turn it is.
- OCONUS vs CONUS – For some deployments people from OCONUS can fill them, for others they can’t.
- Board exam dates – As the Specialty Leader, I don’t deploy someone if it will mess up their board certification exams.
- Commands pushing back – After I submit names for a deployment, the officer’s command can RECLAMA, which is an official non-concur with my selection. These are adjudicated by the regions (Navy Medicine East and Navy Medicine West).
- Other things I’m undoubtedly forgetting.
For example, I just got a request for a deployment, but it overlaps all of the Emergency Medicine oral board exam dates in 2018. In addition, I was told I can’t send anyone from OCONUS. This means I can’t send any new residency graduates or anyone from OCONUS, even if they volunteer. As you can imagine, this limits who I can send and explains why someone might have to deploy for a 2nd or 3rd time when there are others who haven’t deployed.
BOTTOM LINE – When it comes to picking people for deployments, you can see there are many limitations on the process that affect who is eligible to deploy. So I guess you’ll just have to go…
Medical Corps Special Pays Update from BUMED
Please see the message below if you graduated from residency in 2017:
From: Marin, William L CIV USN BUMED FCH VA (US)
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 10:23 AM
Subject: URGENT SPECIAL PAYS UPDATESDeputy Corps Chiefs, I just sent an email to all the command special pays
coordinators informing them of a couple of changes that were recently
decided to make. The first change below is for all Corps, and impacts the
eligibility date for those officers who completed training programs
effective 30 June 2017, which made them eligible for a specific specialty
rate IP 3 months after completing the qualifying training. For example, a
MC officer who completed residency would be eligible for the specialty IP 1
Oct 17; however, as a result of the ASD(HA) Pay Plan still not being signed,
and the impact that will have on Navy likely not signing the Navy’s FY18 Pay
Guidance until at least Dec. Thus, the decision has been made to authorize
those officers who completed training 30 June 2017 to submit for the
specialty IP effective 30 Sep 2017 vice 1 Oct 2017. Next year the decision
may be to move it back to 1 Oct, only for fiscal funding reasons, but for
now they are eligible 30 June. Those who completed the training 1 July
2017, and later, will have to wait for the FY18 NAVADMIN before they are
able to submit.The second change is only for Nurse Corps, and it was to advise the commands
of the change regarding the eligibility for Critical Care Nurses eligibility
for the Retention Bonus, which the NC and Crit Care Specialty Leader are
already familiar with.Appreciate if you could disseminate with your specialty leaders, so they can
advise those within their specialty who may be eligible to submit for the
Incentive Pay IAW the above guidance.SEMPER FI!
William L. “Bill” Marin
Program Manager, Navy Medical Special Pays Program
Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (M13)
Forever GI Bill Slide Set
Here is the PDF of a slide set that explains the changes enacted with the Forever GI Bill:
Weapons of Mass Destruction/Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Medical Specialist AQD
Similar to what the Global Health Engagement community did, there is a new pathway to apply for recognition as a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)/Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Medical Specialist. Anyone interested can find the packet containing all the info here:
Don’t Worry – I Can’t Update My Record Either
I’m in zone for O6 next year, so I’ve been trying to update my record. On the whole, my record is up-to-date on a near continuous basis. As the guy who wrote the book…I mean wrote the PDF…on updating your record, updating my record is one way to make sure that the Promo Prep document is accurate. For this post, I thought it might be interesting to tell you that even I can’t update my record easily.
My Extra Navy Comm
Before I became the Detailer, I had three Navy Commendation Medals. My record said that I only had two. I followed all of the procedures detailed on the Navy Awards Page. Suddenly I not two…not three…but FOUR Navy Comms!
I did everything I could to remove this extra Comm from my record, but I wasn’t actually able to make it happen until I became the Detailer, found the huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan who controls awards, and had him fix it.
The Elusive JPME I AQD
Earlier this year I finished Joint Professional Military Education I, which gets you Additional Qualification Designator (AQD) JS7. Normally Detailers add AQDs, but they can’t add JPME AQDs. For that you have to follow the procedures on this page. As you can read, it says that as long as you e-mail them your JPME letter/diploma, the AQD will be added within 30 days.
I followed the instructions, and it wasn’t added. Only by having the Detailer submit the documents, did the AQD get added. (Thanks, Rich.)
The Missing Service School
Finally, I also completed another service school this year, the MHS Capstone. I submitted my completion certificate to NSIPS, but the school is still not reflected on my Officer Service Record or Officer Data Card.
If I Can’t Update My Record, What Should You Do?
Read the Promo Prep, and do what it says. If it doesn’t work, try one more time.
If after the second time you are still unsuccessful, give up. Yes, give up.
Just send a letter to the promotion board explaining that you’ve tried unsuccessfully to update your record, and include any supporting documents as enclosures with the letter.
No, sending a letter to the board will not update your record permanently. After the board they shred/destroy everything that was sent to them. You’ll continue to have these omissions on your record for every promotion board until it is fixed.
Can’t Fix Your Record?
Try once. Try a second time. Eventually you have to say, “Enough is enough.”
When you get to this point, just send the letter.
The Investment Company Price War and the Thrift Savings Plan
The three largest investment firms have been lowering the cost of their index mutual funds and exchanged traded funds (ETFs) in a price war. How does this price war and the resulting costs compare to the Thrift Savings Plan, which has also had historically low costs on their investments? Read more here:
The Investment Company Price War and the Thrift Savings Plan
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 