Competitive for a active duty OCS Packet? and what to know when going to boards?

Thank you sir.

Though I am loathe to admit, Bob Dylan nailed it when he said you're gonna have to serve somebody. I feel your pain Sir.

*board

Thank you sir!

Credit issues will prevent you from getting any federal job.

My advice is to take an AMEDD direct commission or something similar if he wants to stay medical. Otherwise, if going AD he has a great chance of OCS

Well the promotion thing is definitely a interesting story to say the least. I cannot make this up but at my 4 year mark I was promoted to e4, but after a few months my LES never updated. Contacted my chain of command and was told this could take a while to update. A year later still no update. They contacted DFAS to see what was going on, and DFAS said (1.5 years past that e4 promotion now) I was never promoted. Turns out they promoted the wrong person, and I was due for the month after. Meanwhile, the other person got promoted through DFAS, but never actually had a promotion ceremony. Make a long story short I lost my TIG for E5. Also though the medic platoon was very small with only 3 e5 slots, and 2 e6s when i arrived the e5 slots were recently filled and were not avaible again until the end of my contract in which I was offered to attend BLC etc. Also while I was in I found out that the other person's mom was the beneficiary on my life insurance policy instead of my mother. Only found this out about 4 years in when we did a admin part of PHA finally. As far as medals, none. We did nothing for the 6 years I was in and it was in the down turn spectrum of things as far as training goes, yes went to JRTC, OTC, and stryker school, but other then that no deployments or activations until the actual day after I ETS. As far as branch choice obviously my first pick is Intelligence then aviation, and MP. I have letters of recommendation from 3 senior NCO's to include 2 first sergeants I was a medic attached for, 3 senior officers including my own XO, and 3 from higher level supervisors in my workplace.

Guard promotions suck. They are controlled by the active component which operates under the beliefs that since we aren't "real" soldiers we should be forced to wait longer for promotions. Couple that with the lack of available slots, it can take quite a while. AC soldiers spend 1-3 years in a position whereas Guardsmen may spend 5-10 years in a position. I was an 18 year E-6 just before I went to OCS in 2003. Most of my peers from IOBC are O-5 and above now. I'll be lucky to make O-5 before I retire in 4 years.