Question for any former army RW pilots
 

More specifically any former WO's. I'll have 2 years left on an adso this summer but only 1 year til I board for 3. At what point should I tell HRC I don't want to consider promotion and intend to ride out my adso and separate from the army? Also has anyone gone through the process recently to shed some light on how it works?

I wasn't a warrant so I don't know if I'm prohibited from answering. FYI RLOs go through promotion boards and separations as well, and work in command and staff positions processing those requests. WOs don't, so I wouldn't limit yourself to talking to WOs about it. Now that that's cleared up, you can wait until about 12 months out from sep date. Don't certify your board file, don't update your DA photo, etc. 1 year from separation (which seems to coincide with your board date, which is well before your pin date), tell your S1. They have processes in place for separating soldiers/officers, usually with packets requiring signatures similar to an inprocessing packet, as well as example memos/paperwork that is required. When your board is announced, if you really want to make sure you don't get promoted, talk to your branch manager and tell him your intentions. You can also wait until you make the list then decline it. One of my old WOs came out on the last 4 list and talked to HRC and declined it to get out earlier for the airlines. There is no rush avoiding promotion. But HRC did require me to give 9 months notice prior to beginning of terminal leave, and it took about 3 weeks to get routed from BN-BDE-Installation-HRC, because it requires commander signatures at each stop. I had a WO who tried to separate, had 9 months from the time he submitted it, but by the time it got to hrc he was under 9 months. They made him redo it and resubmit with a later date.

Also know that as soon as you indicate you're bouncing, you can expect center of mass OERs, limited to no flight time if flight time is limited for your company/battalion (unless your IP/MTP services are really needed), and crap additional duties. I gave notice right before a deployment, 12 months from sep date while I was in command, so that wasn't a factor. Did the deployment, flew a lot, couldn't exactly get any more additional duties as a commander, etc. But everyone else I know who got out experienced it to some degree depending on the unit and commanders who consider you no longer on the team. No need to take up limited flight hours or ACOM ratings for someone who has no future in the army, at least that's how it was explained to me. Not to mention every soldier I ever had, PFC-W4, who was separating, milked the transition assistance programs/ACAP process, and were ghosts most of the time. I did it too after I changed command.

This is true and sometimes it's even worst. You may get a below center of mass from someone who is trying to balance a ratings profile with too many top blocks. As a rater, I tried not to do this to good guys even if they were getting out, but most do. You can have the best Aviators in the world but you can't put them all in the top block, or you will hear from DA.

Try not to get screwed. Talk to your senior rater. Who knows, you may find yourself back in uniform, (active, NG or Reserve) and the bad rating will hurt.

Many give BCOM??? That's absolute garbage, and something I've personally never seen. I get the COM and experienced it when I announced my intention of retiring at 20 and 11 days - honestly deserved COM near the end:D - but BCOM? Yeah you have to manage and can't throw out ACOMs willy nilly, but if you're handing out BCOMs to 'manage' your profile, you shouldn't be rating folks. (not saying you personally).

Full disclosure - I retired as the system was changing, so perhaps profiling is more difficult now, but giving a guy a BCOM who truly doesn't deserve one, bailing or not, is crap.

I never had to give bcoms and never heard of any profile requiring it. But I got out almost 3 years ago, so maybe it changed.

Sorry, I overstated that. I shouldn't have said many. Didn't make sense to me either. But I know of 2 such cases. Didn't know the details but someone said it was personal between the 2 Cpts and the rater. Of course that also makes little sense.

See if you can get a Guard or Reserve unit to take you, and then apply to fulfill your ADSO with them. I've seen that approved before. I wouldn't scuttle a career or burn any bridges. If you're interested in an airline career, you may find that having an affiliation with the Guard or Reserve will help you when things go "South" at the airline. It did for me. I quit active duty three times, and eventually got dragged back into the Regular Army for my retirement. Good luck.

I'm a 64 guy and I've seen it happen 5 student times in the past 7 years. I think its absolutely ****ty you screw sometime out of promotion by not letting hrc know you're done, but make NO mistake, with our community at the strength it is now, if you tell them you're done you will become subhuman to them and that may not be reflected on the oer (you'll probably get center mass), but you'll be bottom of the barrel for everything else between now and then.

Not every unit maybe, but I've been doing this 19 years , so take my words with a grain of salt if you want. You've got a 50/50 chance I figure, because if you knew you'd be good, you wouldn't have came here to ask.

Don't be cowed by the threat of a bad report. It's not that important. Believe me. You have the courage to fly a helicopter into a fire fight. Don't be terrified by a piece of paper.

Don't accept it. Be very focused on getting your last per completed before going on terminal leave. After 28 yrs I was treated like a quitter because I wanted to retire instead of getting promoted to cw5. Not even an ets award.