Certain captains of the Medical Service Corps will be assigned career specialties by an area of concentration designation panel that meets late this spring.
The target population for the May 31-June 17 board will be MSC officers in year group 2008 who hold AOC 70B (health services administration) or AOC 67J (aeromedical evacuation) jobs.
Captains included in this mandatory review have O-3 dates of rank of Oct. 2, 2010, through Nov. 1, 2011.
The panel also will entertain optional designation requests from 67J junior captains in year group 2009 with dates of rank of Nov. 2, 2011, to April 1, 2013, and year group 2010 officers with dates of rank of April 2, 2013, to Sept. 1, 2014.
The board will either approve an officer's request, or recommend that he remain in his current area of concentration, and reapply next year.
Effective with this board, officers no longer will be able to appeal a designation board's decision.
Once panel results are released, an officer's newly designated secondary area of concentration will be annotated on his Officer Record Brief.
The designation process is designed so that Medical Service Corps officers will be assigned their career area of concentration before they qualify for below-zone consideration for promotion to major.
Once promoted to captain, officers are notified that an AOC designation panel will be convened no earlier than two years before below-zone consideration for major, and no later than an officer's below-zone promotion to O-4.
According to information released by the Human Resources Command in early March, officers can contact their MS career manager and request that their preferred area of concentration be entered in their Officer Record Brief as their "projected AOC."
Such requests can be made any time before an officer's designation panel, and can assist assignment officers in managing officers who want to serve in a specific AOC, according to the Army.
The performance folder to be reviewed by the upcoming designation panel will be comprised of an officer's Army Military Human Resources Record, official photo and Officer Record Brief.
For specific information about the board, officers should consult MilPer Message 16-075, dated March 8.
The designation panel AOC designation preference sheet will be posted to the Medical Service Corps career management branch Web page.at HTTPS://WWW.HRC.ARMY.MIL/OPMD/WELCOME%20TO%20THE%20MEDICAL%20SERVICE%20CORPS%20BRANCH.
Preferences must be returned no later than May 11 to the Medical Service Corps branch mailbox at usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.opmd-medical-service-corps@mail.mil.
