E7 Boards, a positive change or unnecessary ?

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 05:06:12 -0500

The AF is seriously considering conducting boards for E6's to be promoted to E7 with a strong likelihood of implementing this for FY15 promotion cycles.

A mock board was held last year with about a 10% delta between selects based on the WAPS only process and the Boarding process.

We already do this for E8 and E9, does it make sense to expand this program to all grades in the SNCO tier?
Without leading you too much, what are your thoughts on this proposal, pro and con?

Response by SFC James Baber made Feb 16 at 2014 12:16 PM

SFC James Baber — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 12:16:44 -0500

I am not sure what the effectiveness or not would be for the E7s, but I wish that the Army had their promotions conducted in the manner that the AF does, if it did I might have made E8, I know I would have made E6/7 a heck of a lot sooner than I did in my career, the points system changed so many times during the 90s/early 2000s it took me 10 years to make E6 and another 7 years to make E7 after 6 looks. I am not alone when I say the Army system is broke and needs a complete overhaul with many items currently utilized removed from the current records being presented to cut out the quotas and good old boy system.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 16 at 2014 12:42 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 12:42:00 -0500

Great Question. I'm torn on this topic but I think in the end overall it would be a good thing.

Pro: Elimination of stagnation at the E-7 rank. Available promotion go down significantly at the E7-E9 level. We currently have MANY people sitting at the E7 level just waiting to retire, not striving to get promoted and slowing down the opportunities for those behind them.

Con: Encouragement of more 'square fillers' getting promoted and good NCO's left behind because they chose to stay in a position where they could lead and mentor troops, instead of moving up to 'management level' jobs that 'get you promoted'.

We saw this about 10 years ago when we had a shortage in special duties. We had a ton of people starting to go do special duty assignments not because they wanted to do that but because they were told if they did this as a Master Sergeant then their promotion to E8 upon return to their primary career field would be a shoe in. We ended up with a lot of square fillers in positions that didn't put nothing more than the required three years into their job and then returned to their old career field to get promoted to E8. Do we want to encourage E5's and E6's to go to special duty assignments merely to fill a square for promotion to E7 now?

Not really sure what the right answer is for this question. Like much change thought about in the military, the only way to truly know it's impact is to implement it and then reassess it's effectiveness after 3-5 years of practice.