LTJG submitted a package for a lateral service transfer (Navy) and it is my understanding that the Board convenes tomrrow (8/29/23). Before everyone comes at me and tells me how impossible it is to get a lat transfer approved, I am well aware of the small odds.
My question is more around when will the officers be notified and how long does the process takes around the Board's decision? Are we talking days, weeks or months until an answer is granted. Thanks!
I sat on 3 of these boards when I was on AD. They haven’t changed that much, in terms of core process. As I recall, I was at BUPERS in Millington, TN, for a week. We reviewed packages of people applying to come into the community, worked with the individual community managers on available slots in various year groups, briefed assigned packages to our board, racked and stacked, made our recommended list, adjusted, readjusted, finalized.
It is a numbers game, in many ways. A lat transfer applicant may have a superb package, but if there are not enough officers in his/her year group (commissioning year) in their current community, they may not be released. There are statutory limits on numbers of officers in each paygrade, and those numbers are distributed among the various officer designators at the various ranks. The officer community managers are closely monitoring community endstrength at every paygrade and in every year group, to keep promotion flows healthy and within manpower projections.
As a board, we examined packages looking for those who truly wanted to come into the community and brought the requisite skills and potential to be successful and promotable. Those who were not doing well in their own community and looking to escape it and look for promotion elsewhere were fairly obvious. We also looked at the CO’s forwarding recommendation. That can range from “Forwarded, not recommended,” (uh oh), to “”Forwarded, recommending approval,” (neutral) to “Forwarded with my strongest professional and personal approval. LTJG Davy Jones is a superb professional, my #1 in his competitive group, and though he would be a significant loss to his current community, I have no doubt he would excel as a (target community) officer.”
Sustained superior performance is always critical.
Once the board concludes its deliberations and dissolves at the end of the week, usually with a final list and some alternates, the community managers get together and do battle over final names and ensure the numbers come out right across all communities. The list goes up the chain for review and final approvals, with perhaps some minor reworking. It will be double-checked, signed off and formatted into a NAVADMIN message release. I’d say a month or so, roughly. Once that news is out, approved officers work with their detailers to determine next steps as to when they will detach from current command, any changes to projected rotation date (PRD), when will the actual designator change takes place (trying to remember if it is next FY) and issuance of orders to first duty assignment in new community, depending on what is appropriate to get up and running on new career path.
