Originally Posted by Marvin

I was in a position to see quite a few records over the past couple years as folks came into the zone for promotion to Lt Col. Many of the guys who left AD and went to the Reserves, then came back to AD when their airlines furloughed them after 9/11, simply had really weak records over the intervening years when they were in the Reserves.

The Reserves (in general) don't tend to write OPRs that will be competitive on an active duty promotion board. Active duty OPRs tend to be "what did he do, how did he do it, what was the result" ... Reserve OPRs tend to be "what did he do" only. And, since the AF is not looking for Lt Cols to fly airplanes (the AF wants Lt Cols to be in charge of organizations and in positions of some authority on staffs), saying that he went to XXX location to drop off a plane load of Spam is not going to get you very far.

So, when those 2, 3, or 4 Reserve OPRs show up in front of a promotion board, they just don't stack up strongly enough.

It works fine for the Reserves -- but when those guys go back to active duty, they are at a MARKED disadvantage. And, the board is not going to say, "Well, this guy was in the Reserves for a few years, so we'll add a few extra points so he can compete."

I'm not saying it is right or wrong or fair. I'm just sayin' ...