promotion boards
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – All the Posts About Letters to the Board in One Place
The question most people ask me is answered in these posts:
Should You Send a Letter to the Promotion Board?
Do You Still Need to Send the Above Zone Letter?
The bottom line is:
Pretend that you did not send a letter to the board, the board is over, and you were not selected for promotion. Are you going to be kicking yourself for not sending the letter? If the answer is yes or maybe, then send the letter. As long as you keep it short and sweet, there is no real downside.
Frankly, I think that when officers send letters to promotion boards they are often just making themselves feel better, and there is nothing wrong with that. You want to make sure that when the promotion board results come out, no matter what happened, you feel like you did everything you could to get promoted.
Letters to promotion boards have a new due date. You can’t send them the day before the board anymore:
Letters to Promotion Boards Now Due 10 Calendar Days Before the Board
If you know you are getting out of the Navy and really don’t care about getting promoted, you should read this post:
What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
Have you been on active duty for less than 1 year? Read this:
How to Be Considered for Promotion if You’ve Been on Active Duty for Less Than 1 Year
You now need to use your DoD ID number and not your Social Security number on letters to the board. Read this:
Use DoD ID Number and Not Your SSN on Letters to the Board
You can now submit letters electronically:
Promotion Boards Postponed, PFA Cancelled, and Hair Standards Relaxed
Here are all the NAVADMINs that deal with these issues:
- Postponement of Selection Board Schedule
- Physical Readiness Policy Update
- Temporary Relaxation of Hair Grooming Standards
No, you cannot grow a beard. Sorry.
Playing the Game and Managing Your Military Career
What better to do during a global pandemic than listen to a screencast about managing your career! Here are the PPT slides I used for it:
Playing the Game – Managing Your Military Career
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – Did You Really Fail to Select for Promotion?
If your name was not on the promotion list, you probably weren’t selected for promotion. There is, however, a chance that you actually were selected for promotion but your name was removed after the promotion board. Why would this happen?
After promotion boards there are some systems that are “scrubbed” to ensure that no adverse or reportable information exists for the officers selected by a promotion board or by an administrative board (the CO/XO/CMO/OIC board, for example). Here is a chart that shows you the systems that are checked:
As you can see, if you have problems with your security clearance, the Inspector General, Naval Criminal Investigative Services, or any legal issues, your name could be removed and your promotion put on hold. How do you tell if this happened to you?
First, go to BUPERS On-Line and click on the link for “Advancements/Selection Boards” as pointed out with the large arrow:
Now you should see a screen similar to this one:
As you can see, I was a “SELECT” for O6. If you actually were a non-select for promotion you’d see a “N” where my “S” is. If you were “scrubbed” from the promotion list, you’ll see an “H” for HOLD.
If you don’t see anything, then you didn’t fail to select. You probably weren’t looked at by the board. This most often happens to people who trained in the NADDS program in civilian training programs and weren’t on active duty for a whole year. Sometimes, though, these people will show up on the reserve promotion lists, so don’t lose hope until you check that list as well. As of now, the FY19 LCDR list for the reserves isn’t out yet.
If you are on hold, I’d contact your Detailer to try and find out why.
The FY21 O6 Promo Board Convening Order Emphasizes Operational Medicine and Readiness
What better way to spend a Valentine’s Day evening when your wife is out of town than this…
There are some new things in the FY21 O6 convening order. Grab both the FY20 and FY21 below and let’s take a look page by page:
FY-20 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
FY-21 O6 Staff Corps Convening Order
The Method to My Valentine’s Day Madness
I went through both convening orders and noted the pages in the FY21 order that represent a substantial difference from last year’s order. I focused only on impact on the medical community (MC, NC, MSC, DC). In other words, if something was different for the JAG Corps or Supply Corps, I didn’t highlight it. Any pages not highlighted are functionally the same.
Page 2 of FY21
- The promotion opportunities changed:
- Medical Corps went from 81% to 91%
- Dental Corps from 89% to 90%
- Medical Service Corps from 60% down to 50% (bummer)
- Nurse Corps stayed the same at 50%
Page 8 of FY21
This is where the meat starts, the section entitled “Medical Community Considerations”:
The bold portions highlighted below are new from FY20:
Knowledge and proven performance/experience in a variety of settings including operational medicine, joint medical operations, and current garrison health care and fleet/FMF support is necessary.
Additionally, Navy Medicine greatly values joint experience and formal education, including JPME, with knowledge and experience in a variety of settings including joint medical operations and current garrison health care delivery and operational support initiatives.
Do you see a pattern here?
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Pages 9-10 of FY21
The following sentence is brand new:
Excellence in operational support settings should receive special consideration as Navy Medicine shifts greater focus to readiness and operational support.
Which brings me back to…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Here is some more brand new stuff in bold:
Best and fully qualified officers for the rank of captain will be those with proven leadership experience who have demonstrated experience and expertise across the spectrum of military medicine, especially inclusive of operational experience and operational platforms. With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
Oh boy! I feel like I’m beating a particular drum…
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Read that again, people:
With Navy Medicine’s renewed focus on operational support and readiness, our future leaders must have shown leadership excellence in those activities.
MUST have shown. That’s a strong statement!
The Bottom Line
KEY MESSAGE – Navy Medicine is increasing its focus on fleet/FMF/operational support. Everyone needs to be operationally relevant to promote to O6.
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – You Should Care About Promotion Board Precepts and Convening Orders
Whenever a promotion board starts, the members are provided two items to guide them as they decide who to promote, the board precept and the convening order. These documents are available on-line and should be used to figure out how to promote and write your fitrep.
The Board Precept
The precept is released in December and can be seen anytime afterwards. For example, if you go to the FY21 O4 Staff Corps Promotion Board page and click on the link titled “SecNav Approved Precept” you’ll get the board precept even though this board hasn’t started yet.
The Convening Order
The convening order for a promotion board is not released until it starts. If you monitor the board page closely, you’ll usually be able to get it within 1-2 days after the board begins. I was able to download the FY21 O6 board convening order on Tuesday of this week (2 days ago), the day it started. You just click the link that reads “Board Convening Order”, like in this image below for the FY19 O4 Staff board:
Incidentally, this is how I always find out the promotion opportunity for all the boards and post it on the blog. It is in the convening order.
Why You Should Care
You should care about the precept and convening order because they tell you how to promote to the next rank. Go to this page and download them from the most recent boards of your next rank. You can see all the different boards circled in red here:
Click on the board for the next rank you’ll be competing for, and download the precept and convening order. If the board hasn’t happened yet (like the FY21 O4 board), then you’ll have to look at last year’s convening order (FY20).
Use these documents for two things. First, to figure out how to promote. For example, I deconstructed a past O6 convening order here.
Second, use them to come up with wording for your fitrep bullets, as discussed here where I showed you how to pull phrases for your block 41.
The Bottom Line
- Go to this page.
- Get the precept and convening order for your next rank. You might have to go to last year’s board for the convening order if the board hasn’t started yet.
- Use them to figure out how to get promoted and for writing your fitrep.
FY21 O6 Staff Corps Promotion Opportunities Released
The FY21 O6 Staff Corps promotion board started today, so they released the convening order. On page 2 you can find the promotion opportunities, which are:
- Medical Corps – 91% (the highest it has been since FY13, which is as far back as my data goes; it was 90% in FY19)
- Dental Corps – 90%
- Medical Service Corps – 50%
- Nurse Corps – 50%
If you need to review promotion board math, go here.
Throwback Thursday Classic Post – What is a “Don’t Pick Me” Promotion Board Letter? Why Would You Send One?
If you go to the Navy Active Duty Officer Promotions Page, you’ll find this at the bottom:
Sample “Don’t Pick Me” Letter to the Board
Removing the introductory portion, here is what the meat of this letter says:
1. Per reference (a), please remove my record from consideration by the FY-2X Active Duty (Grade) (Competitive Category) Selection Board.
That’s it. All it says to the promotion board is, “Don’t pick me.”
Why would or should a physician send a letter requesting NOT to be considered by a promotion board? Here are a few reasons:
- You are an O4 or O5, know that you are resigning, and that you will not be joining the Reserves – If you are just paying your time back and getting out, do your fellow officer a favor and remove yourself from consideration. It is hard enough to promote to O5 and O6 nowadays. Having one less person to compete with helps out those who are willing to stick around. Yes, if you are picked and get promoted soon enough you could get some extra pay for a little while before you resign, but I’d say the general karma of letting someone else get the promotion outweighs that small financial benefit.
- You are an O4 or O5 who is retiring but you know that if selected for promotion you won’t accept it – Why would someone not accept a promotion? Because a promotion to O5 or O6 obligates you for 3 more years if you intend to retire. And the Navy still isn’t letting anyone get out early. If you want to get out as fast as possible with a 20 year retirement, taking a promotion to O6 in year 18 means you must stick around until year 21 at least.
Why is a “Don’t Pick Me” letter not applicable if you’re an O3? Because for physicians the promotion opportunity is “all fully qualified” or 100% for O4. In other words, if everyone in zone was fully qualified they could promote every physician who is a LT to LCDR. They generally don’t, but they could. You taking a promotion doesn’t really hinder someone else’s promotion like it does for O5 and O6.
So…if #1 or #2 above are applicable, consider sending a “Don’t Pick Me” letter. And remember, they are now due 10 days before a board convenes (not 24 hours like before).
FY21 Promotion Boards – What are They Looking At and How Can You Get Ready?
Here is a screencast/podcast of this updated lecture as well as the PDF of the slides I used:
FY 21 Promotion Boards Slide Deck
Joel Schofer's Career Planning Blog 