I'm not allowed to post this on FB

[MrsAggie]

yet.

H was selected to be promoted to captain! His official promotion date was September 1st but we haven't had the ceremony yet. Apparently we have to host it. I know we need to provide food, and maybe a cake? I have no idea what I'm doing lol.

[Smurfette]

Congrats H!

I have no idea how to help though

[kpol]

Congrats to your H!

M was promoted with about 5 other guys outside on a nice summer day. I think the whole BN attended but there wasn't food or cake. Do you know how many people will be there?

[MrsAggie]

All battalion officers and whoever he invites from the company. I'm planning on maybe 50sih?

[basilosaurus]

We never had a party for that IIRC because it happened right around pcs time. He won't pin on the next for probably a year, so who knows what we'll do if anything. We like to use any excuse for a party, so I'm sure it will be something

Most of what I've seen is that people will buy a round of drinks, and their office will have maybe a cake and veggie tray. It's pretty much an automatic promotion to captain (at least in the AF), and no one I know made a big deal out of it. I think the biggest fuss I've seen was over lt col and col, and those consisted of buying out the bar (at the o-club) for the evening or catering an after work snack/wine party. Maybe I just know weird people. Or maybe being overseas makes a difference.

I do know the rule of thumb is that the party should cost what the difference in your first paycheck will be.

[kpol]

Wait, maybe there was cake! I think we left right after and got lunch.

It's basically an automatic promotion in the Army, too so no one made a super huge deal out of it either.

I think a cake and few snacks should be plenty. Veggie/cheese tray, chex mix, etc.

[basilosaurus]

Isn't it something like a 99% selection rate? Basically, if you didn't show up drunk or get a dui or land yourself in jail, you're going to be promoted. I think the AF just started having a captains board, but I don't know if that's gone into effect or if it affected selection rate.

Oh, wait, I found data!

Captain: First lieutenants vying for promotion to captain had a 95 percent promotion rate in 2011, the first year that they faced a central selection board. The same is expected this year, when the board meets July 16-27. Before 2011, the selection rate had been almost 100 percent.

[kpol]

A guy in M's old unit had one GOMAR and was about to get another and still got promoted. The Ltc. wouldn't let him pin it but he was getting paid as an O3!

[basilosaurus]

How does that work? Was he getting o3 pay in error? Can a local person prevent a promotion from going through? Or did the guy truly get the promotion and the ltc was acting inappropriately?

[kpol]

I have no idea how it worked unless he was lying when he said he was getting O3 pay but still wearing 1LT. He was under investigation for an incident with the local police when he was supposed to get promoted and it was my understanding that they (BDE and BN Commanders) weren't allowing him to wear CPT rank until the investigation was over.

[MrsAggie]

Ok, cool. I was thinking about cake and one of those giant subs. It'll be at work so unfortunately no drinks, but we'll probably go out with people later. H has decided to get out of the Army. January is his last month so we didn't think he'd get the promotion since they knew he was leaving. It's an extra bonus that he got an earlier promotion date so we'll actually see a few of those paychecks before we leave. He was debating staying in the extra 3 years to be able to get the promotion so I'm so happy he won't have any regrets!