Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"August 2, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
August
2, 2002
WASHINGTON (Army News Service) -- In a move designed to allow more lead time for permanent-change-of-station notification and best use advanced NCO training course seats, the Army is changing the dates it traditionally holds promotion boards for sergeant first class through sergeant major.
The Office of the Deputy Chief Staff, G1, sent an All Army Activities message, commonly referred to as an ALARACT to the field on the subject July 10.
Promotion boards for 2002 and 2003 will be held as normally scheduled with the date changes occurring in 2004 and 2005.
Specifically, the sergeant major promotion board will meet in June 2004, instead of October; the master sergeant board will convene in both February and October 2004 and meet in October thereafter; and the sergeant first class board will convene in February 2005, rather than June.
While the first board date change does not occur until 2004, the impact will be felt sooner. The 2003 sergeant first class board will select enough NCOs to meet the Army’s sergeant first class promotion needs for a 19-month period instead of the normal needs for 12 months.
In order to transition to the new board dates, there will be no sergeant first class promotion board scheduled in 2004, said Sgt. Maj. Gerald Purcell, a personnel policy integrator with the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G1.
"This will obviously be tumultuous for some, but it is about correcting some unfavorable situations out there that have been created by the timeframe the results of these boards traditionally come out," Purcell said. "This is about what is best for soldiers and the Army."
What is best for both, according to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, is reducing turbulence created by short-notice PCSs, Purcell said.
With sergeant major promotion boards historically meeting in October and a command sergeant major review board the following December, the sergeant major promotion list gets released in mid January. Personnel managers at the Total Army Personnel Command then need several months to determine who goes where, often giving sergeant major academy graduates a 60-day or less notification of where they are going after a May graduation, Purcell said.
Likewise, those master sergeants selected to attend the Sergeant Major Academy often get short notification. Both situations place undue stress and turbulence on the soldiers and their families, he said.
Moving the sergeant major promotion board to June allows for Sergeant Major Academy graduates to receive their PCS notifications six months out, Purcell explained. Likewise, it will give those selected to attend the academy a nine-month notice.
Another unfavorable situation the board date changes are designed to fix is low advanced NCO course attendance during the first quarter of each fiscal year, Purcell said.
With sergeant first class boards meeting in June and the selection list released in late August, PERSCOM has had little reaction time to best use existing first-quarter training seats.
Moving the sergeant first class promotion board to February will allow PERSCOM more time than the current system allows to fully use available ANCOC training seats throughout the year, Purcell said.
Having one large sergeant first class board in 2003 and none in 2004, does have a drawback to those approaching a retention control point.
Under a policy implemented in October 1995, soldiers who are within 12 months of their retention control point are not eligible for consideration by a centralized promotion board. Under that policy, an initial analysis showed a little more than 2,000 staff sergeants -- with a basic active-service date between June 1, 1985 and Jan. 31, 1986 -- would have one less promotion board to consider them within the re-sequencing of the boards, Purcell said.
"To overcome this, we will grant exceptions to policy to allow each of these soldiers the opportunity to compete for promotion during the 2005 sergeant first class board," Purcell said. "These special provisions will be announced in the message announcing the 2005 sergeant first class board."
"To get where we need to be, we have to go through a transition period," Purcell said. "That’s always difficult to accomplish while trying to ensure soldiers are treated equitably and fair. The only way to re-sequence the boards is for one to be delayed and to be preceded by a larger than normal select objective. We decided to make this adjustment with the sergeant first class board."
To ensure the Army still selects the "best-qualified" for promotion, he said, it will need to expand the zone of consideration for the 2003 sergeant first class board.
"The sergeant first class board is the best one for this because military occupational specialty-qualifying jobs are not as stringent as those competing for master sergeant and sergeant major," Purcell said.
Time-in-grade requirements for the 2003 sergeant first class board are still being determined, but they will allow for those considered to have at least two completed and filed NCO evaluation reports as a staff sergeant.
"About 2,800 staff sergeants will be considered earlier than they normally would have -- June 2003 instead of June 2004, and about 8,000 will be delayed -- February 2005 instead of June 2004," Purcell said. "These are tough calls, but we simply just can’t move everyone up to the earlier board. We have to ensure that when we provide an opportunity for a soldier to be considered, that we are providing them a realistic chance for selection."
One key point to remember, Purcell said, is that the total number of soldiers that will be promoted during this transition will not be any less than if the boards were not re-sequenced. Some soldiers will be considered a little earlier and some a little later, he continued, but the end result truly benefits soldiers, their families and the Army.