Five earn eagles at McChord

By 446th PAO on December 18, 2011

Five Reservists with the 446th Airlift Wing here have been selected for promotion to colonel.

Congratulations to: Col. James Dignan, 446th Operations Group; Lt. Col. Rick Grayson, 446th OG; Lt. Col. Scott Weichert, 97th Airlift Squadron; Lt. Col. Rob Richardson, 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron; and Lt. Col. Sam Barringer, 446th ASTS.

Air Reserve Personnel Center officials at Buckley AFB, Colo., announced results for the CY11 USAFR Line and Nonline Colonel Promotion Selection Boards Dec. 9.

The selection boards convened at the center Oct. 17 to determine those officers qualified to assume the next higher grade. This year board members selected 263 of 2,032 officers considered for the colonel selection board.

The colonels board, which is one of the largest boards held at the ARPC, requires ARPC's Total Force workforce of Active Duty, Reserve and Guard members and contractors work together on officer selection records.

The promotion board evolves each year when senior leaders show up at the ARPC headquarters to begin the week-long board to review the records.

"The board consists of 48 senior leaders, who are mixture of active duty and Air Force Reserve senior leaders," said Col. Lisa Yacoub, ARPC Director, Reserve of the Air Force Selection Board Secretariat. "The board members arrive on Monday morning, and spend most of the first day in orientation and training. They also get an opportunity to do sample scoring where they score all records by private ballot and resolve significant disagreements."

The board president, a major general, is a non-voting member, and can be either active duty or Reserve. It is the board president that oversees board operations and out briefs the results of the board to the Secretary of the Air Force.

"The members sit in five-member panels. Each panel has a one-star general and four colonels who all can vote," said Allison Lynch, technical advisor to the selection board secretariat. "The board considers the member's officer selection record, consisting of all officer performance reports and decorations; a one-page summary of data called the officer selection brief; and a letter to the board should the officer decide to write one."

Other information, which can be includes in the OSR, including Articles 15 or letters of reprimand the officer's senior rater decides to file, or any results of courts martial proceedings. The panel members give each record a score from 6 - 10 in half-point increments, based on the whole person concept.

The officers whose records meet the board cannot address the board in person. In fact, the only person who can address the board is the SECAF, who provides the board specific instructions via the memorandum of instructions.

"The scores are combined to make a highest-scoring to lowest-scoring listing of all records that met the board," Lynch said. "Once they have an order of merit, the board members look at the lowest scoring select and determine if that officer is fully qualified to serve in the next higher grade. Once they have selected that officer, that officer and everyone who scored higher than that officer is put on the select list. The board members then sign a board report to the SECAF verifying they completed all board processes and identified all the selects."

Competitive categories considered during these promotion boards are: Air Force Reserve Line, Chaplain, Dental Corps, Line of the Air Force-Judge Advocate, Medical Corps, Nurse Corps, Medical Service Corps and Biomedical Sciences Corps.

DPB supports 10 selection boards, including two additional boards annually. It takes about 10-12 months to complete each board, Yacoub said.?

A complete list of Citizen Airmen selected for promotion is available on the Air Force Personnel Services Web site. For more information, contact the Air Reserve Personnel Center Public Affairs office at 720-847-3030 or DSN 847-3030.

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