Waiting for the promotion board

As a "basic-branch first lieutenant who will be considered by the Army Competitive Category captain board that convenes April 2," I can authoritatively say there's a lot of talk among us company-grade officers about how this year's board will go. [Source]

March 23 is the last day to finalize one's Officer Record Brief (the Army's version of a resume) before the board begins. Given that this year only the 90 percent "best qualified" will be selected for captain (versus the 99 percent or so "fully qualified" in previous years), everyone's curious about how it will go.

Starting this year there's also the issue of this "special Officer Evaluation Report" (OER) mentioned in the above source. Effective October 11, 2011, everyone is supposed to have an OER with a rating by one's "grand-boss" (senior rater). However, not everyone has received their annual rating since then. Although guidance has been put out that instead of an 02-Annual in the H-block, they should have one coded 19-AHRC directed, not everyone's paying attention.

As of March 12, though, only 65 percent of the lieutenants being considered by the board have a proper OER filed, and March 23 is the deadline.

I consider myself fortunate that I already have a new-style OER on record due to my change of rater in February. That fulfills the requirement, so I don't have to panic this week.

Just the same, this past week I updated my ORB and certified My Board File. The board won't see the results of my Japanese DLPT, but that's not important -- it won't make any difference anyway. My required documentation and Army photo are squared away.

I have to admit, though, that I'm still nervous about when the results. I'm paranoid that there's something I've forgotten about or overlooked. My battalion's S-1 (administrative officer) says everything looks OK, but you know how it is.

You just never know...