By Lt. Col. Shawn Woodbridge, Army Reserve Communications
Reserve component colonel and lieutenant colonels eligible for the Army Promotion List and the Army Medical Department Boards will have to square away their packets sooner than they may have anticipated.
According to Col. Barbara Owens, Army Reserve G-1, moving the board dates to January (APL) and February (AMEDD) significantly improves both the promotion and the command board process.
“Holding the promotion boards in May and July did not allow sufficient time to process results prior to the command boards,” said Col. Barbara Owens, Army Reserve G-1. “The modification narrows the command board’s focus to promotable officers only, allowing the board to hone in on the best selection from a pool of qualified applicants.”
“This is a positive step to improving the process, ensuring we assign commanders properly,” said Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith, director of Army Reserve Human Capital Core Enterprise. “The previous timeline created self-inflicted administrative delays in both processing and finalizing command assignments.”
Smith noted that the absence of timely notification often resulted in newly promotable lieutenant colonels declining a previously accepted lieutenant colonel command position in favor of a promotion. This circumstance caused re-slating of the vacated position and caused additional delays and turbulence in command positions.
Conducting two promotion boards for each grade and competitive category in the condensed timeframe will benefit promotion non-select officers by providing a quick re-look rather than waiting another year for the next promotion opportunity.
The MILPER messages of the changes impacting O6 and O5 APL and AMEDD boards beginning in FY13 will be published in October. Though there is sufficient time to submit the required documents for the January and February boards, due to the condensed timeframe between the FY12 and FY13 promotion boards there may be less time to impact board files, e.g. additional OERs.
For the upcoming promotion board dates for FY13 see the Human Resources Command website: