COMMON MISTAKES
SELECTION BOARDS SEE
SELECTION BOARDS SEE
Fitness report writing is an art and a science. Commanding Officers need to ensure
they are fair and above reproach in the evaluation of their people. At the same time CO’
s need to mentor juniors on how to write a fitness report, the importance of performing
meaningful work, and taking on the hard jobs. You, the individual, should be able to
provide the skeleton on which to add the meat for your FITREP. Often it becomes
difficult to hang meat on a skeleton – just coming to drill and being a good person does
not help your superiors to write a meaningful fitness report. Remember it is your career
and your record – you need to work hard to make the most of it. There are dozens of
anecdotal stories about how WE have inadvertently affected the careers of good
officers through poor fitness report writing. These mistakes are often the mistakes of
omission (“Gee, I didn’t know that!) or, more seriously, commanding officers trying to
“game” the system or simply avoiding a tough decision. Writing fitness reports is one of
the most important responsibilities of those in command. The Navy expects us to know
the rules and to be uncompromising in doing the right thing. We all make mistakes.
Regrettably, that is one of the best ways we learn. As our medical brethren would
say----“Scar tissue is the strongest tissue.” Here is some scar tissue assembled by our
Board of Directors:
1. Marking a superior performing officer who is junior lower than a weaker performing
officer who is senior in order to help the senior officer “get promoted”.
2. Boilerplating. A CO who boilerplates 25% of the report for all personnel tells the
selection board he/she doesn't know their personnel.
3. Lingering on personal or civilian-job related information. Block 41 gives you 18 lines
to mention significant military accomplishments. When you waste space to discuss
scouting, coaching, community service, the promotion at work, you neglect the military
report of fitness which IS the meat of any fitness report.
4. Cheating. You cheat when you: a) Score your MP's higher than your EP's to show
MP officers as higher than the reporting senior’s average. b) Use block 41 comments
to state what you didn't state in the ranking. Example: "this is my number one
department head and the number one officer in my command"--but--you make this
officer a Promotable.
5. Waiting until the last minute to write them. Plan three months in advance. Hold
murder boards with your ACOS/ Department heads. When you hurry, you make
mistakes. Your personnel are the losers.
6. Lack of bullets; a long wordy FITREP will not be as helpful, especially in front of a
board.
7. Overly general content. Use specific numbers accomplished, e.g. man-hours
provided in operational support for an exercise or something else notable are a must.
Saying “we received positive reviews from the gaining command” is a loser.
8. FITREPs that are too short. We have seen FITREP inputs that were six lines. This
may be OK for a four month, not quite NOB report, but if that’s all you have for a year,
especially as an O-4 or above, you need to revisit it.
9. Award recommendations that have not yet been presented or approved. NO, NOT,
NEVER put them in a FITREP.
10. Empty statements; LT. Smith is a great officer, liked by all.
they are fair and above reproach in the evaluation of their people. At the same time CO’
s need to mentor juniors on how to write a fitness report, the importance of performing
meaningful work, and taking on the hard jobs. You, the individual, should be able to
provide the skeleton on which to add the meat for your FITREP. Often it becomes
difficult to hang meat on a skeleton – just coming to drill and being a good person does
not help your superiors to write a meaningful fitness report. Remember it is your career
and your record – you need to work hard to make the most of it. There are dozens of
anecdotal stories about how WE have inadvertently affected the careers of good
officers through poor fitness report writing. These mistakes are often the mistakes of
omission (“Gee, I didn’t know that!) or, more seriously, commanding officers trying to
“game” the system or simply avoiding a tough decision. Writing fitness reports is one of
the most important responsibilities of those in command. The Navy expects us to know
the rules and to be uncompromising in doing the right thing. We all make mistakes.
Regrettably, that is one of the best ways we learn. As our medical brethren would
say----“Scar tissue is the strongest tissue.” Here is some scar tissue assembled by our
Board of Directors:
1. Marking a superior performing officer who is junior lower than a weaker performing
officer who is senior in order to help the senior officer “get promoted”.
2. Boilerplating. A CO who boilerplates 25% of the report for all personnel tells the
selection board he/she doesn't know their personnel.
3. Lingering on personal or civilian-job related information. Block 41 gives you 18 lines
to mention significant military accomplishments. When you waste space to discuss
scouting, coaching, community service, the promotion at work, you neglect the military
report of fitness which IS the meat of any fitness report.
4. Cheating. You cheat when you: a) Score your MP's higher than your EP's to show
MP officers as higher than the reporting senior’s average. b) Use block 41 comments
to state what you didn't state in the ranking. Example: "this is my number one
department head and the number one officer in my command"--but--you make this
officer a Promotable.
5. Waiting until the last minute to write them. Plan three months in advance. Hold
murder boards with your ACOS/ Department heads. When you hurry, you make
mistakes. Your personnel are the losers.
6. Lack of bullets; a long wordy FITREP will not be as helpful, especially in front of a
board.
7. Overly general content. Use specific numbers accomplished, e.g. man-hours
provided in operational support for an exercise or something else notable are a must.
Saying “we received positive reviews from the gaining command” is a loser.
8. FITREPs that are too short. We have seen FITREP inputs that were six lines. This
may be OK for a four month, not quite NOB report, but if that’s all you have for a year,
especially as an O-4 or above, you need to revisit it.
9. Award recommendations that have not yet been presented or approved. NO, NOT,
NEVER put them in a FITREP.
10. Empty statements; LT. Smith is a great officer, liked by all.
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