Can a soldier be forced to attend an Audie Murphy board?

As an NCO.....you should ALWAYS be prepared to lead Soldiers! You should also be able to handle each and EVERY situation that comes up! What you show your Soldiers is what they will learn! You should always have confidence in your leadership abilities as an NCO! This sets you & your Soldiers up for success! My question is, why would you question your own abilities as a leader? When I wanted to attend the SAMC Board, the mission came first until eventually I lost interest. However, the many Soldier & NCO Boards that I have won led my Soldiers to compete at DA Level for both Soldier & NCO of the year! Always push yourself & push your Soldiers to be better than you were! Says a lot about you as a true leader!!!!!

He should've had a LITTLE more notice

8 days is plenty of time to study for a board (any board), I went before 18 Soldier of Month boards, won 16. Appeared before promotion boards for E5/E6, smoked both (250/248), the E6 board was @ Ft Huachuca (Sig/Int Ctr), I posted #1 score that month. Always wanted to go before Sgt Morales or Audie Murphy boards, but I was non combat arms.... so suck it up, 'forced'? Should be honored to be selected .... from a former 2nd ID Soldier of Year and 5th Army NCO of Year, still took me 10 years TIG as E6 to make E7

Why Wouldn't you want to compete? You have put forth the effort to move up in the ranks, become an NCO, now show your worth and compete for a great honor. This represents not only Your worth, but the worth of your current and past leadership.

When I made secondary zone I didn't want to go to the board but Chief and my section NCO told me to. I went, tried my best, got 142/150 promotable.
I was told to and so I being the subordinate said yes ma'am and yes sergeant.

Not really forced but the alternative is not good either. Prepare as much as possible and Go!!!! Be all you can Be!!!! It is worth it, if you do not think so, find an alternate career.

I'm not going to say no because I was sent to the SAMC beard by my BDE CSM. I had three weeks to prepare for the BDE level board and with help and advice from my sponsor, I was selected to appear and eventually selected for induction into SAMC. What I can say is it is not like your typical board. What you're evaluated is the knowledge you already have as an NCO. There will have to be done brushing up because the questions posed are situational, but that's what your sponsor and the study groups are for, to help to prepare you for what you will face. This, to me, is where the sponsor is the most critical. They are the ones that are members and through their experiences of the time they appeared before the board, can offer the most insight on what you might see. As long as you pick your sponsor's brain as well as the other members in your BN or BDE, you'll do fine if you decide to go.

If the 1sgt feels he is good enough to go before the board. He may see more in the sgt than he does in himself.

I can't count how many posts I see about soldiers or NCO's who are "forced" to go to boards as if it's some heinous crime being laid upon them...

So here are a few of my thoughts (as if anyone cares):

1) First and foremost, you joined the military which means you all too often get zero say on what you do, where you go, and how you do it.
2) No one is asking you to go against your religion, kill someone without proper cause/mission, or even commit an immoral or unethical act. It's a freaking board.
3) What's being asked of most of these people isn't anything anyone hasn't already gone through or done before.

So. Someone wants a NCO to attend an Audie Murphy board. Great!! Whether they want to or not, doesn't matter. It's career progression, it's an opportunity to grow both personally and professionally and I have news for you, if you think it's all sunshine and free will out here in the civilian world, you are sadly mistaken. You have to do things for career progression out here AND stuff you don't want to do on a daily basis. Why? Because that's life.

So my advice to that NCO is to man/woman up, start studying, and quite honestly be grateful that someone thinks they're good enough to attend AND that they're even given the opportunity to go. Make the most of it. You don't get ahead in life only doing what you want to do.

And on a personal note, tell them to grow the f^ck up. Life is hard. Get over it. And set a better example for your troops. No one wants a whiny leader.

Carry on and good luck.

If he is a good NCO, and wants this, he will be ready. While, this is not my lane, my understanding, over 33 years, was Audie Murphy was the best of best, as chosen by the Senior NCO Support Channel. I can't imagine why we would want someone in this prestigious organization, who did not want to be there. Desire should be considered.