14N Guy

So where does this new rating system leave those passed over APZ? Considering promotion rates to O-5 are 70%-ish wouldn’t that leave any remainders in the bottom third for essentially the rest of their careers? What I am wondering is, does this new rating system guarantee “bottom” designations for the final 2-4 OPRs of everybody passed over 1APZ? That would seem to give CC’s an out to speed on other officers. Need an extra “top” recommendation? Just give a passed over Officer a “bottom” designation. Maybe it doesn’t matter but I would think it would have a negative effect on any potential employer that reviews OPRs (no idea if that happens).

I very well could be a turd too. I honestly don’t know if winning awards means anything. I don’t know how the AF considers one set of records to have more leadership potential than another set of records. I should have done a lot of things differently in my career and I own my mistakes; I just wish somebody would have given me a road map (or I would have figured it out) on what I needed to do to not be in the bottom 30% of my year group at this point in my career. I think that’s what’s going to eat at me for a long time.

I hope it works out better for you then it did for me. My wins/strats were similar to what you posted, except I had 3 FGOY (Gp/A2 lvl), multiple Gp/A2 quarterlies and one MAJCOM FGOQ. My Lt/Capt records were all average, no strats/only a couple quarterly awards and no negative indicators. I did have 2 OPRs where I didn't see eye-to-eye with my raters and my push lines were "ready for greater challenges" and "IDE look" (ironically, that same rating chain got me an O-4 PRF DP). I think those two OPRs really damaged my overall record.

I actually had an O-6 get visibly upset with me when I asked why I didn’t get a strat after winning FGOY at the A2 level. The A2 took it as me questioning its command decision instead of me asking what else I needed to do to get a strat. In the 14N community strats are like fight club. They are never spoken of by ratees.

Yea, I think what I was trying to say about the DP is that I didn’t understand how I got a DP for my O-4 board (based on my records leading to that point), then my records have improved every year since then and still got passed over for O-5 IPZ and now APZ. I should have clarified that I wasn’t trying to compare the DP rates and I can see how it came across like that. I didn’t expect a DP for any of my O-5 PRFs but what bugs me the most is that when I ask for any type of feedback on why I got passed over, all I get from my leadership is, “I don’t know, all boards are different”. The strats were DO strats. In the 14N world, DOs are boarded positions and I’m not 100% sure that translates to big blue.

All excellent points. I think most of it is me being a queepy little b**** right now.

Same here. Looking at reserve and ANG openings. Everybody is telling me to push through the last 4.5 years but I don’t know if I can sit in some back office, in some job nobody cares about, that doesn’t have any meaningful work to do just to collect a paycheck. I don’t want to have to PCS 1-2 more times to sit in jobs I have no motivation to do and, frankly, don’t care about just to retire at 20. As far as my push line went (for anybody interested in comparing), I had 2 WG/CC strats (both top 35%), Sq/CC and SDE push. I also had the magic C on my other bullets. My first 8 OPRs didn’t have any strats in them but my last 6 have. The strangest thing to me is that on my O-4 PRF I was a DP and my records have improved since then. oh well. Good luck to everyone else.

From my experience, if you are 2BTZ, you know you are 2BTZ. Again, just my experience, but, if you don’t have a bunch of tier one #1 strats, DGs, exec/aide time and served in specific jobs (I can only speak to the 14N career field on that one) then you won’t be 2BTZ. The few records I’ve seen of 2BTZ officers stood out as 2BTZ (not that it needs to be said, but a lot of them weren’t “good” officers).

That would be unfortunate. I don’t post on here much at all but I have been lurking since 2009 and I get better gouge from you guys then I have ever received from anybody in my 15 year career.

Si, por favor.

My 1APZ. Would love to see the list if anybody is willing to share (99.69% sure I already know the outcome but would be nice to confirm).