How much of an affect does a referral EPR have on a Warrant Officer board?

SrA Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 18:50:27 -0400

I am thinking about going blue to green and trying to become a warrant officer for rotary aircraft. However i have a referral EPR from a year ago because i got an LOR for sexual harassment. Will this have a great affect on a board? It is my only bad EPR out of 5 i have had. Should i possibly wait another year or two before applying? I have about 5 years of aviation service and about 1500 hours of flight time, and 200 instructor hours, but will this EPR basically put the nail in the coffin?

Response by SGT Joseph Gunderson made Jun 18 at 2018 7:20 PM

SGT Joseph Gunderson — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 19:20:10 -0400

So, if I am reading this correctly, you last evaluation was a bad one due to the LOR?

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jun 18 at 2018 8:37 PM

CAPT Kevin B. — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 20:37:40 -0400

Boards look at things differently vs. an individual with a LOR, bad eval, or whatever. It's a numbers and insurance game. If you have 100 applicants for 30 spots (many more than needed), the board looks for easy tosses and slam dunk accepts on the first pass. You're an easy toss target. If there were 30 applicants for 30 slots, then the insurance game comes into play if you are otherwise qualified. Are we better off taking a risk on this guy or not? Only then will there be a deep dive and the kind of discussion you may be hoping for, but won't get, on the first pass. Same logic works for promotion, continuation, command, and whatever other boards are out there. Most times the process goes through three crunches to get the result. The other issue is you have no subsequent paper trend so the aspect of risk becomes much more unknown. Is it a bogie or a pattern? The tarot cards do not favor this situation at the present time.

Interesting you mentioned better off having a DUI. That can be interesting in that leadership tends to shy away from stuff they're more scared about or add another 100 yards to the blast perimeter. They are uber adverse to stuff coming back to haunt them. Easier to see if someone is staying on the wagon vs. other non-kosher activities. Easy to over-punish. Can't come back on them. Look how I take SHARP seriously! I spent a lot of time with Title VII stuff and there are bad things that you must take care of, and I did. Sometimes it was so bad that the top brass under-punished and buried stuff to keep their butts in the hunt for flag, or out of "60 Minutes". You see a lot of the over-under thing on stuff leadership doesn't have a stabilized track record on. Rightly or wrongly a LOR is a minor bump in the grand scheme if you make sure it stays an unrepeated anomaly.

Final thing to consider is determining if there's people who matter in your corner. Anything going on that merits special positive paper? If you're moving forward with a hard lesson learned, then keep going forward. Then more people will be interested in helping you take the next big step. Good luck son.

Response by CW2 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 19 at 2018 1:04 AM

CW2 Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 01:04:07 -0400

I imagine your EPR reflected your Sexual Harassment LOR. Frankly, that kind of action is not in line with the Army values and depending on the unit you are with in the Army, could have ended your career right there. I wouldn’t count on getting picked up. Of course, there is no reason you couldn’t try... but I certainly wouldn’t want you in the Army.

Response by TSgt Terry Hudson made Jun 19 at 2018 9:36 AM

TSgt Terry Hudson — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 09:36:06 -0400

SrA Rood, I suggest you wait a little and get some good EPRs on top. You’re trying to become an officer, with a referral EPR on top, for sexual harassment. I’m not downing you but that doesn’t fly with D.O.D. PERIOD! The fact that you’re still in is a blessing in itself. Get some good EPRs make staff and then try. Good luck man!