Line Officer Reclassification Board

[Guest one]

I am unfortunately in the process of being medically disqualified from flying related duties. I finished three months of training but had to be removed because of my medical problem.

I am currently preparing my reclassification package and was wondering if anyone with experience can tell me the proper protocol to ask someone for a letter of recommendation when you are no longer in their chain of command? Most of the people going to the board commissioned through ROTC and received really good LORs from their leadership at ROTC. I am prior service that commissioned through OTS so that avenue is not available for me. I am hoping to get LORs from my past leadership but most of them have changed duty locations in the last 6 months. I have their contact information but it seems inappropriate to just email them or call them because they are 0-6s in important leadership positions.

For those of you who are a current or retired 0-5 or 0-6, how would you expect someone to ask you for a LOR in this situation?

For my old squadron commander, I setup an appointment to speak with him through his secretary. The other two individuals I had to look up on the portal to find their current contact information. I have no idea what organization they work for to find out the number to their secretary.

[whodat]

You are focusing to much concern on obtaining a LOR. I'm not sure how far you are in the commanders review process but your commanders review letter that goes before the board with have the greatest weight to it. He or she will end it with a recommendation to either reclass or not reclass. I have yet to see a person who had to be dropped out of UPT for legitimate medical reasons, who wanted to stay in, and wasn't a complete screw up not be re-classed.

[Guest one]

I have not started anything yet. I am just preparing myself because what the doctors have said so far is not promising. The doctors have not given very good odds on being able to return to training. At this point there is not much else I can do besides prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I am not sure exactly how the commanders review process works but from what I hear from others going through the process, it consists of a couple of meetings in service dress and paperwork. I am sure the commander’s recommendation is the most important but I don't think that it will be negative given my circumstances. Almost 90% of the people being re-classed have either self-eliminated, failed, or got in serious trouble. I am hoping that the fact that I was doing well in training and that I was medically disqualified would almost certainly give me a favorable review from the commander.

The LORs will likely take the most amount of time for me to get unless I ask someone at my training base to write it. If someone from my training base writes it, the content of the letter will sound like all the other letters to the board.

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

I have not started anything yet. I am just preparing myself because what the doctors have said so far is not promising. The doctors have not given very good odds on being able to return to training. At this point there is not much else I can do besides prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

I am not sure exactly how the commanders review process works but from what I hear from others going through the process, it consists of a couple of meetings in service dress and paperwork. I am sure the commander’s recommendation is the most important but I don't think that it will be negative given my circumstances. Almost 90% of the people being re-classed have either self-eliminated, failed, or got in serious trouble. I am hoping that the fact that I was doing well in training and that I was medically disqualified would almost certainly give me a favorable review from the commander.

The LORs will likely take the most amount of time for me to get unless I ask someone at my training base to write it. If someone from my training base writes it, the content of the letter will sound like all the other letters to the board.

Unless your medical problems were self induced, your process will be far different than someone being eliminated "for cause". You're not being flunked out of pilot training. Your situation sounds unfortunate, but I expect your leadership will take care of you to the max extent possible.

[JPStryker]

I expect your leadership will take care of you to the max extent possible.

Don't believe this. With few exceptions, your leadership will take care of your leadership to the max extent possible. You need to take care of you to the max extent possible.

For your old commanders, if you can find them in Outlook then the numbers attached to their Outlook profile will be for their secretary or exec, so you don't have to worry about cold calling them.

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

Don't believe this. With few exceptions, your leadership will take care of your leadership to the max extent possible. You need to take care of you to the max extent possible.

Fair enough (though sad these days). I guess what I meant to say was he shouldn't expect to be actively fighting for his life like someone who actually flunks out of UPT.

[Guest one]

For your old commanders, if you can find them in Outlook then the numbers attached to their Outlook profile will be for their secretary or exec, so you don't have to worry about cold calling them.

Thank you. This is something I was trying to find out.

[frog]

Honestly, if you worked with your past leadership regularly, and there is mutual respect between the two of you, just email them directly. Keep it short, very brief explanation, ask for a recommendation, and let them know you can get on their schedule for a follow up phone call if necessary. If the guy knows you, respects you, and wants you to stay in the Air Force, it shouldn't bother them one bit. If they don't want to write you a recommendation, the worst thing they can do is ignore your email. You don't have much to lose.

Caveat: I'm a lowly O-3. But I wouldn't hesitate to email my past commanders directly if I really needed their help.

What career fields are you hoping for? Knowing the assignments officer at AFPC can really be helpful if that particular career field is undermanned.

Edited October 27, 2012 by frog

[Guest one]

I am hoping to become an intelligence officer. I was a prior service intelligence analyst.

I worked for them in the sense that I was one of the hundreds of people that worked under their command. I was good at my job but I doubt they would remember my name. It has been almost a year since I left my old job.

[whodat]

Couple of pieces of advice on how the process will work.

1) Your CR process will require multiple interviews with various levels of leadership, if you are in UPT this will conclude with an interview with the Wing CC.

2) You will have an opportunity to write a one page memo stating what happened, what you would like to do, and why the AF should keep you. This along with your commanders CR conclusion are what matter most.

3) Your pick of possible AFSC changes depends on what reclassification board you hit. Generally speaking there are 4-5 boards a year. If the board is late in the fiscal year your options of potential AFSC's will be extremely limited, if its at the beginning you will have the most options. That aspect just comes down to timing and luck. They will provide you a list with AFSC's available and how many slots their looking to fill with each particular one. You will fill out your top 5. Note: applying for certain AFSC's depends on your college degree. Intel is open to everyone.

4) Look out after yourself, follow-up on shit and be persistant, know the deadlines for EVERYTHING. I've seen a few guys have their re-class packages completely lost among other adminstration mistakes that can put them in limbo for a very long time (over a year in a couple of cases ive seen).

Hope this helped.

[Danny Noonin]

I worked for them in the sense that I was one of the hundreds of people that worked under their command. I was good at my job but I doubt they would remember my name. It has been almost a year since I left my old job.

If they didn't know you, they shouldn't write a recommendation for you and you shouldn't ask. A recommendation from a TSgt that knows you well is worth more than a recommendation from a colonel who doesn't know who you are.

[BQZip01]

one, PM me for more info. I went through a similar experience, but I'm not going to share all the details with the public.

[Fuzz]

Couple of pieces of advice on how the process will work.

1) Your CR process will require multiple interviews with various levels of leadership, if you are in UPT this will conclude with an interview with the Wing CC.

2) You will have an opportunity to write a one page memo stating what happened, what you would like to do, and why the AF should keep you. This along with your commanders CR conclusion are what matter most.

3) Your pick of possible AFSC changes depends on what reclassification board you hit. Generally speaking there are 4-5 boards a year. If the board is late in the fiscal year your options of potential AFSC's will be extremely limited, if its at the beginning you will have the most options. That aspect just comes down to timing and luck. They will provide you a list with AFSC's available and how many slots their looking to fill with each particular one. You will fill out your top 5. Note: applying for certain AFSC's depends on your college degree. Intel is open to everyone.

4) Look out after yourself, follow-up on shit and be persistant, know the deadlines for EVERYTHING. I've seen a few guys have their re-class packages completely lost among other adminstration mistakes that can put them in limbo for a very long time (over a year in a couple of cases ive seen).

Hope this helped.

It isn't a CR, he's not going to be reinstated, he essentially skipping that whole process and going straight to reclass. However 3 & 4 are valid points, having had a couple friends go through this process.

[whodat]

It isn't a CR, he's not going to be reinstated, he essentially skipping that whole process and going straight to reclass. However 3 & 4 are valid points, having had a couple friends go through this process.

I have to respectfully disagree, while even though he isn't going to be reinstated he still has to go through the CR process. Its the same as if you wash out for failing to adapt for air sickness. The whole point of the CR process is to generate a re-class package to go before the board with your commanders inputs.

I could be wrong, and the process could have changed since the last time I had to process a few of these. But this is generally how I know it to be.

Edited October 27, 2012 by whodat

[Guest one]

If they didn't know you, they shouldn't write a recommendation for you and you shouldn't ask. A recommendation from a TSgt that knows you well is worth more than a recommendation from a colonel who doesn't know who you are.

I do not think a letter from a TSgt is going to cut it. It shouldn't matter who is writing the letter but I think we can all agree that to some people it will matter a lot. I still worked for them and they wrote great OTS LORs for me. They just have so many people working for them I would not expect them to remember who I was a year later. I do not want to have to ask anyone for a LOR but I am a little worried because the ROTC guys all sound like they have awesome LORs from Colonels and Lt Colonels because they asked their detachments for LORs.

Right now I am just being proactive. I am not even scheduled for a board yet and the doctor is doing some more tests to see if surgery or some other treatments might be a possibility. I will find out in the next month but it is not looking too good. I am hoping that they put somewhere in my medical records that if the condition goes away then I can go through the flight physical process again and apply to a rated board in three or four years. It is a longshot but at least it is a chance to comeback.

I think I should be good. I am sure my flight commander (0-3) and my squadron commander (0-5) will write me excellent LORs. I still have a lot of time to try to work with my old squadron to find another good person to write a LOR for me.

I really considered having someone enlisted write a LOR but I didn’t know how the board would like an enlisted person explaining what they thought of my potential of being an officer was. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks to everyone who offered advice. This situation will only continue to suck but at least I can go into the situation as prepared as possible.

[Azimuth]

I really considered having someone enlisted write a LOR but I didn’t know how the board would like an enlisted person explaining what they thought of my potential of being an officer was. Any thoughts on this?

Unless it's a Command Chief, or a Chief who's a Group Superintendent that you worked with, I wouldn't waste the time and stick with O's writing your LOR's.

[Danny Noonin]

I do not think a letter from a TSgt is going to cut it. It shouldn't matter who is writing the letter but I think we can all agree that to some people it will matter a lot. I still worked for them and they wrote great OTS LORs for me. They just have so many people working for them I would not expect them to remember who I was a year later.

My point was not to actually have a TSgt write you an LOR. My point was that a recommendation from someone who does not even know who you are is fucking worthless...just like a recommendation from a TSgt.

[Guest one]

I get what you are saying. It is much different at my non-flying intelligence squadron than a flying squadron. We only have a couple officers. My choices are limited. That is why I was saying I even considered asking my first sergeant who is now a command chief to write an LOR.

I am going to have a few good LORs from leadership from my last squadron so I am not too worried at this point. I was more worried before I had these lined up. Thanks for the input.