IN THE CASE OF: BOARD DATE: 14 January 2010 DOCKET NUMBER: AR20090005462 THE BOARD CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING EVIDENCE: 1. Application for correction of military records (with supporting documents provided, if any). 2. Military Personnel Records and advisory opinions (if any). THE APPLICANT'S REQUEST, STATEMENT, AND EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant requests that her records be corrected to reflect her original commissioning date as a second lieutenant (2LT) on 23 December 2003, that her promotion to the rank of captain (CPT) be pushed back to reflect the 18-month promotion timeline with her peers of November 2008 and that she be deemed eligible to receive the Fiscal year 2008 (FY08) CPT, Army Competitive Bonus. 2. The applicant states, in effect, that the documents initiated when she took her oath of office as a U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) 2LT on 23 December 2003 were not properly filed on her official records and it was not until 2006 that she had to re-take her oath of office. However, she continued to serve and her records reflected her new commissioning date and date of rank (DOR) as a 2LT of 15 June 2006. She continues by stating that she made numerous attempts to correct the errors and that the administrative errors on her records have caused her promotion to the rank of CPT to be delayed and have placed her behind her peers through no fault of her own. She further states that she has found two cases considered by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records where individuals were disadvantaged due to administrative errors that were through no fault of their own and were granted the same kind of relief she is seeking. She also states that as a result of the delay of her promotion to the rank of CPT, she was denied the opportunity to take part in the FY08 CPT, Army Competitive Bonus. 3. The applicant provides a list of attachments containing 23 enclosures with her application. CONSIDERATION OF EVIDENCE: 1. The applicant was commissioned as a USAR Quartermaster Corps 2LT in St. Louis, Missouri, on 23 December 2003. 2. On 10 October 2005, a memorandum was dispatched to the applicant from the U.S. Army Human Resources Command, St. Louis (HRC-STL), Missouri, informing the applicant that she had not been selected for promotion to the rank of first lieutenant (1LT) by the administrative promotion board which convened on 1 September 2005 due to not meeting the military education requirements for promotion. She was advised that if she had completed the officer basic course (OBC) she should provide evidence of such in order to be reconsidered. 3. On 4 January 2006, a memorandum was dispatched to the applicant from HRC-STL informing the applicant that she had not been selected for promotion to the rank of 1LT by the administrative promotion board which convened on 1 December 2005 due to not meeting the military education requirements for promotion. She was advised that if she had completed OBC she should provide evidence of such in order to be reconsidered. 4. On 23 March 2006, a memorandum was dispatched to the applicant from HRC-STL informing the applicant that she had not been selected for promotion to the rank of 1LT by the administrative promotion board which convened on 1 March 2006 due to not meeting the military education requirements for promotion. She was advised that if she had completed OBC she should provide evidence of such in order to be reconsidered. 5. On 14 June 2006, the applicant again took the oath of office as a USAR 2LT due to the absence of a record copy on file. The oath was administered at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort, South Carolina. Her original oath of office was later recovered and her commissioning date and date of rank were adjusted accordingly. 6. On 10 January 2007, orders were published by HRC-STL ordering the applicant to active duty for training (ADT) to attend the Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) at Fort Benning, Georgia, for a period of 48 days beginning 4 February 2007. 7. The applicant completed BOLC and was promoted to the rank of 1LT on 22 March 2007. She was ordered to ADT for 88 days to attend the Quartermaster BOLC Phase III course at Fort Lee, Virginia, effective 25 March 2007. The applicant attended the course from 2 April 2007 to 20 June 2007 and achieved course standards. 8. The applicant volunteered for and was ordered to active duty effective 28 June 2007 for a period of 3 years and was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 9. On 19 October 2007, the applicant submitted a request for consideration by the FY08 CPT Promotion Board to HRC, Alexandria (HRC-ALEX), Virginia, requesting that she be considered for promotion to CPT by the board convening on 23 October 2007 as an exception to policy because she had not been on active duty for 1 year before consideration. The final action on that request is not present in the available records. 10. On 24 November 2008, the applicant submitted an FY2007/2008 Officer Menu of Incentives Contract. On 3 December 2008, she was notified by officials at HRC-ALEX Officer Retention Branch that no action would be taken on her request because she was not eligible for the incentives program as a 1LT. The applicant requested that the application be held until a decision was made on her promotion date and indicated that she was trying to have her promotion date pushed back to 1 November 2008. She was promoted to the rank of CPT on 29 January 2009. 11. The officer record brief (ORB) provided by the applicant is dated 3 March 2009 and shows her basic date of appointment and DOR as a 2LT as 15 June 2006. However, an ORB dated 1 September 2009 shows that her basic date of appointment and DOR as a 2LT as being 23 December 2003, which indicates that the correction she is requesting has already been made to her records. 12. The two cases provided by the applicant which had previously been approved by the Board involved Army National Guard officers who did not receive timely Federal recognition and required action to correct the dates of Federal recognition for promotion. 13. In the processing of this case a staff advisory opinion was obtained from HRC-ALEX Active Components Promotions Branch which opined that the applicant entered active duty on 28 June 2007 and was not eligible for consideration by the FY08 board because she did not have 1 year on active duty when the selection board convened. However, she was considered and selected by the FY09 board. 14. The advisory opinion was provided to the applicant for comment and she essentially non-concurred with the opinion in an electronic mail message from Iraq. She states, in effect, that her career timeline was held up because she was not sent to BOLC prior to February 2007 and contends that the lack of opportunity due to manning or financial concerns of her past units were not due to any fault of her own. She goes on to state that she should have been granted a waiver of the 1-year active duty requirement, which would have amounted to about a month. She would have been able to be promoted in November 2008 instead of January 2009 and she would have been eligible to take advantage of the CPT career bonus. 15. Army Regulation 600-8-29 (Officer Promotions) prescribes the officer promotion function of the military personnel system. It provides, in pertinent part, that commissioned officers with less than 1 year of continuous active duty (since their most recent placement on the active duty list) before the board convenes are not eligible for consideration by a promotion selection board. Requests for exception to this requirement must be forwarded through the first general officer in the chain of command to the Commander, HRC-ALEX. The request must substantiate that the officer's break in service does not warrant the protection provided by the 1-year active duty requirement. Requests for exception are processed on a case-by-case basis. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: 1. Inasmuch as the applicant's records currently reflect her correct commissioning date and DOR as a 2LT as 23 December 2003, no further action is required on this issue. 2. Accordingly, the issue remaining in this case is whether the applicant should have been granted a waiver of the requirement to be on active duty for at least 1 year before being considered by a promotion selection board to the rank of CPT. 3. While the applicant has submitted a copy of her initial request for an exception to policy regarding the 1-year rule, that request does not contain sufficient justification for waiving the 1-year rule, nor does it contain supporting comments from her commanders or the final results of her request (presumably her request was denied). In any event, there simply does not appear to be sufficient justification to allow the applicant to be considered without regard to the 1-year rule simply to qualify her for benefits that offer her financial gain. 4. The applicant's contention that the two cases previously approved by the Board are similar to her circumstances has been noted and found to lack merit. The two cases involve Army National Guard officers who, because of administrative processing errors, did not receive timely Federal recognition due to no fault of their own. In the applicant's case, her issue is simply that she was not on active duty for 1 year before the promotion board convened for promotion to the rank of CPT and had to wait until the next board convened. The two cases concerned are simply not similar to circumstances that apply to the applicant's case. 5. In order to justify correction of a military record, the applicant must show to the satisfaction of the Board or it must otherwise satisfactorily appear that the record is in error or unjust. The applicant has failed to submit evidence that would satisfy this requirement. BOARD VOTE: ________ ________ ________ GRANT FULL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT PARTIAL RELIEF ________ ________ ________ GRANT FORMAL HEARING ___X____ ___X___ ___X____ DENY APPLICATION BOARD DETERMINATION/RECOMMENDATION: The evidence presented does not demonstrate the existence of a probable error or injustice. Therefore, the Board determined that the overall merits of this case are insufficient as a basis for correction of the records of the individual concerned. ____________X_____________ CHAIRPERSON I certify that herein is recorded the true and complete record of the proceedings of the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in this case. ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090005462 3 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1 ABCMR Record of Proceedings (cont) AR20090005462 2 ARMY BOARD FOR CORRECTION OF MILITARY RECORDS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS 1