The first in a series of annual boards that support the Army's ongoing divestment of Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters will meet in April to screen certain first lieutenants and captains for possible transition to other aircraft.
The target population for the OH-58A transition potential panel that will meet April 11-12 will be Regular Army Kiowa-qualified first lieutenants and captains in specialties 15A (general aviation) and 15B (combined arms aviation) who have not served a key developmental assignment.
For these junior officers the key developmental assignment is company command.
The five-member panel of senior commissioned officers from the Human Resources Command and aviation community will be asked to prioritize aircraft transitions based on an officer's potential for aviation service, according to Lt. Col. Whitney Gardner, chief of HRC's aviation officer career management branch.
The order of merit list produced by the panel will be used by career managers to schedule transition training in more advanced aircraft, such as the CH-47 Chinook, AH-64 Apache and the service's fleet of fixed-wing airplanes.
UH-60 transition training is not in that mix right now, as the Army is overstrength in Black Hawk pilots.
"Retention and talent is what is driving this particular panel," Gardner said.
Transparency in this process also is important, so that pilots in the affected population will know how they will be selected and scheduled for transition training, he said.
"The procedures we are using are based on input from the field," Gardner said.
"Brigade, battalion and squadron commanders who have OH-58 officers in their formations have expressed concern about how to counsel and lay out career paths and expectations for these junior officers," he said.
Those concerns have been taken into consideration, "and we want officers to know we will develop an individual plan for them, and that they can continue to contribute to Army aviation outside the OH-58D" career track, Gardner said.
The branch chief noted that because these are junior officers, many of whom have only a few evaluation reports in their file, HRC has asked aviation commanders to provide performance and potential assessments of subordinates in the transition cohort.
The April board is not a one-time event, unlike the panel used in 2014 to compile an order of merit list for identifying some 320 OH-58D warrant officers as primary candidates for transition to more advanced aircraft.
About 100 commissioned officers meet the eligibility criteria to qualify for board consideration this year.
Career managers will focus on the top 30 percent of the OML in slating transition training.
Officers not selected for transition will be eligible for subsequent selection by one of three follow-on annual panels.
Junior officers who are in the OH-58D cohort have the option to apply for a branch or functional area transfer under the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program.
The next quarterly VTIP panel convenes April 25. The application deadline is Friday. For program details, consult MilPer Message 16-039, dated Feb. 3.
The zone of consideration for the April aircraft transition panel will not include OH-58D officers who are in company command, or who already have commanded.
These captains will be scheduled for transition training once they are selected for promotion and resident attendance at the Command and General Staff College Course.
Transition training for officers identified by the April board will occur just before or immediately after their attendance at the Captains Career Course.
"Once they complete that, they can move out immediately for company command," Gardner said.
Command and staff college grads who have completed transition training will be eligible for assignment to a key developmental position for an aviation major.
Most of the officers who receive transition training will incur a three-year active-duty service obligation. The obligation can be served concurrently with any other active-duty service obligation, such as that incurred upon graduation from flight school.
For detailed information about the aircraft transition panel, officers should consult MilPer Message 16-068, dated Feb. 25.
For questions, contact Capt. Sidney Roberts, a staff officer with the aviation career branch, at (502) 613-6084, DSN 983-6084, or email sidney.l.roberts7.mil@mail.mil.
