[antiRepublicrat]

I used to deal with lots of OERs in the Army, and I don't know how much this reflects on Navy back then, but there are two main things here. Most junior officers score in or near the top rankings if they are any good at all. Senior officers almost always score in the top ranking unless their career is over. Second, most of that earlier stuff didn't mean much, while only the bit at the end for the senior officer's rating was really meaningful.

[BurbankKarl]

"If I had ten divisions of John Kerrys, then our troubles here would be over very quickly."