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>"That's absolutely right. I would not tap his VN record and hope for some smoking gun. His fitrep wasn't great, but did not indicate anything terrible either. There is so much more to work with by outing his VVAW record and his record in the Senate."

EM rankings were always more realistic, but OER's were a joke. One O-1 Arty FO dropped 155mm rounds among the friendlies on two occasions in RVN (no one hurt), was sent back to Ft. Sill and shot out of safety zone sinking an unoccupied civilian boas on local lake, was drunk most of time and still got a 96% on his "Little Men at the bottom of the form" ranking from his rater.

I refused to write a concurring review. Finally got it knocked down to a 92.

EM rankings were always more realistic, but OER's were a joke. One O-1 Arty FO dropped 155mm rounds among the friendlies on two occasions in RVN (no one hurt), was sent back to Ft. Sill and shot out of safety zone sinking an unoccupied civilian boas on local lake, was drunk most of time and still got a 96% on his "Little Men at the bottom of the form" ranking from his rater. I refused to write a concurring review. Finally got it knocked down to a 92.

Brings back memories. Actually a 96 would have been a promotional kiss of death. A 92 should have ended his career!

My own experience with OERs is Army from the '70s.

I'm not sure I'd characterize this as quite a "career-buster" but it sure doesn't have the "this officer walks on water and hold people up on both sides as he does so" quality of most of the one's I've seen.

I noticed in particular he was dinged (i.e. less that perfect) for his shiphandling (which could be considered his primary job as CO of a Boston whaler) on page 1 and for professional knowledge, loyalty, fore, industry, judgement , analytical ability, personal behavior, military bearing and both oral and written self-expression.

If you want to show an officer's improvement, those are not areas you mess with.

Another observation is that the narrative is very flat. The key phrases I don't see are the ones that separate the mediocre from good officers, such as: "I would fight to have X assigned as a battery commander if I were taking the battalion into combat" or "LT X served as a battery commander for the past 6 months with notable valor and efficiency after Capt Y was KIA. He is probably the best battery commander I have seen in 20 years on active duty. Every effort must be made to promote LT X below the zone and to retain him in the Regular Army."