Some junior officers within the Marine Corps will quickly have a neater time selling to the following rank, in line with a current service message.
Starting in October, first lieutenants, who beforehand required choice boards to evaluation their information to advertise to captain, will as a substitute endure a paperwork screening course of to make sure that they’re “totally certified” to achieve the following rank.
The change was introduced in a Marine Corps message that acknowledged “for promotion to the grade of captain, a promotion choice board is not going to be convened.” As an alternative, lieutenants will undergo a course of referred to as the All-Absolutely-Certified-Officers Checklist, or AFQOL, which requires solely a screening of official army information.
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“The change to an AFQOL permits the Marine Corps to proceed choosing totally certified officers for the rank of captain whereas concurrently rising the variety of potential selects and lowering the executive and monetary assets traditionally allotted for boards,” Capt. Sarah Eason, a spokesperson for Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, advised Navy.com through e-mail on Dec. 20.
Funds that the Marine Corps is hoping to save lots of on embody journey budgets for choice boards and time that’s sometimes allotted for administrative processes. Eason emphasised that the change was not made in response to any elevated or decreased modifications in officer retention because the Marine Corps, as a complete, appears to retain extra Marines.
“There are a number of causes for junior officers getting out of the service,” Eason stated. “The junior officer inhabitants is wholesome and exit traits for junior officers are much like different years.”
That stated, Eason stated that the Marine Corps’ requirement for captain exceeds what may be produced with the board certification methodology. So the Corps nixed it to permit the service to retain extra captains.
Eason declined to say if this determination could be everlasting. The present message is in impact for the 2025 and 2026 fiscal years.
“The Marine Corps frequently seeks to enhance the promotion and retention processes,” she stated. “This alteration shall be assessed and refined to make sure it’s the greatest promotion course of for Marines and aligns with the wants of the Marine Corps.”
Officers who fail to qualify for the AFQOL is not going to be chosen for captain. Officers who intend to separate or retire from the army previous to the board could write the president of the board requesting that they not be chosen for promotion, in line with the message.
In the meantime, the Marine Corps stated that it had met practically 93% of its first-term enlistment aim for fiscal yr 2024, which means it’s nicely on its solution to assembly objectives for reenlisting Marines who’re on their first contracts.
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