Posted on Jan 5, 2014
Overseas service ribbon/stripes question, how to compute months
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My question is two part, so please bear with me (and thanks for the help, I've never gotten a solid answer on this):
1. Part one, eligibility:
"How long do I have to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan to be awarded the OSR?
IAW AR 614-30, Soldiers who serve a minimum of 11 cumulative months (within a 24 month period) or 9 continuous months in a TCS/TDY status may receive overseas tour credit for a completed short tour."
My ERB shows a deployment from 201226 to 20130831 and calculates to 8 months.
I did NOT deploy within the 24 months, twice, so the 11 cumulative will not work. My BN S1 adjutant said I am NOT eligible for the OSR for this tour because I didn't hit the 9 months. Fine by me, I really don't care. So I took my photo and had my ERB say 1 OSR (for a 12 month Afghan deployment, I didn't get an OSR for my 3 month OIF I invasion deployment).
I actually can't find where in AR 614-30 it says that. The one from 2010 doesn't seem to have the chart that the old one said that basically said "if this, then that". And the words "9 continuous" as from HRC don't even exist in the document according to the search function.
The S1 told me it was based on how many months showed up on the ERB. So if it had said 9 months I would have been good, but it says 8 months.
And my total deployed time says 23 months on my ERB, so I can only wear 3 overseas bars on my sleeve as well (according to S1).
2. Now for part two:
So I validated my board record a couple weeks prior to the board with my ERB saying 1 OSR and my photo with only the OSR and no numerals.
I had CSM Maynard look at my record and he noticed my ERB said 2 OSR.
Someone, or HRC, automatically added my second OSR even though I don't appear to be eligible and was told I wasn't.
First, how bad does that look to the board (assuming my ERB was changed before the board convened), and second, is there a way to see what ERB the board pulled? When I click on my board file in OMPF, it says not available because the board already convened.
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The argument I've been told is it isn't by day but by month, but I can't see where that's in writing. For example, if you went by month and not days, it would be December (2012), Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, July, Aug - nine months. But by days apparently they have something before the 15th or after or whatnot, which calculates to 8 months total, not nine.
And I've been told that for the stripes it's by months, for the OSR it's basically by days.
So to play it safe I just went with the ERB. ERB said 8 months for this deployment, so I didn't put an OSR on. ERB said 23 months total deployed, so I only wear 3 stripes on my sleeve.
MSG Board
ERB
Deployment
Edited 11 y ago
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 12
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For the OSR, if your ERB shows 8 months in Section I, then it is not the 9 months required. Months are calculated in Section I by days and not under the same rules as OSBs.
For OSBs, the Total Months in Section I will normally not add up to your qualifying months for the OSB. According to 670-1, "The months of arrival to, and
departure from xxxxxx are counted as whole months." This is not the way that eMILPO calculates the "months" in Section I.
Hope that helps.
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CSM Mike Maynard
SFC Lance Asher - first, what I'm going to describe is based on the regulation. OSRs and OSBs seem to be very difficult for administrative folks to calculate based on the myriad rules and changes that have happened over the years. Additionally, deployments are counted separately, even if they are ICW a normal OCONUS tour.
1) - 35mos Germany = 1xOSR
2) - 15mos Iraq = 1xOSR
3) - 36mos Hawaii = 1xOSR
4) - 12mos Iraq = 1xOSR
5) - 6mos Iraq = 0xOSR
6) - 8mos Saudi = 1xOSR (>11 cumulative months within 24 months)
7) - 12mos Korea = 1xOSR
8) - 12mos Korea = 1xOSR
A great FAQ page from HRC to use is - http://www.hrc.army.mil/TAGD/Overseas%20Service%20Ribbon%20OSR
Just show your S1 the reasoning used to determine your OSRs and they can make the change for you. Hope this helps.
1) - 35mos Germany = 1xOSR
2) - 15mos Iraq = 1xOSR
3) - 36mos Hawaii = 1xOSR
4) - 12mos Iraq = 1xOSR
5) - 6mos Iraq = 0xOSR
6) - 8mos Saudi = 1xOSR (>11 cumulative months within 24 months)
7) - 12mos Korea = 1xOSR
8) - 12mos Korea = 1xOSR
A great FAQ page from HRC to use is - http://www.hrc.army.mil/TAGD/Overseas%20Service%20Ribbon%20OSR
Just show your S1 the reasoning used to determine your OSRs and they can make the change for you. Hope this helps.
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2LT (Join to see)
CSM,
I hope this thread is still active but if someone serves a tour in AFG or IRAQ from NOV-AUG for a total of 269 days would they qualify for the OSR?
I hope this thread is still active but if someone serves a tour in AFG or IRAQ from NOV-AUG for a total of 269 days would they qualify for the OSR?
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2LT (Join to see)
614-30 only stated 9 months consecutive or 11 months cumulative but it didn't state how those months were calculated. Technically that is 10 months counting from NOV-AUG but if you are counting days its 8 months and 29 days. A day short if days are what is used to calculate months of service. Would that still qualify for the OSR? if not is there not an ETP for a unit that close to receiving an OSR?
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CSM Mike Maynard
2LT (Join to see) - This is one of the most confusing topics dealing with awards. So, OSRs are based on "days", not "months" like the OSB. On your ERB, it will state the number of "months" in Section I out from that deployment. If it says "9", then you have met the requirement for an OSR, if it says "8", then you have not met the requirement and will need to accumulate 11 months within a 24 month period to earn the OSR. As far as an ETP, everything has an ETP, but they have set policy for the # of months required, so the ETP would have to be about something other than being short a day or so. Hope that helps and my advice is based on how things were when I retired 3yrs ago and a brief perusal of the reg to see if anything had changed.
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maybe it's different for NCOs, but I don't know if the board even really looks at your DA photo when you are an officer, other than to make sure you are not a total fat-ass. I know a guy whose packet went before the O4 board and he didn't even have his name-tag on his ASU in his DA photo, still got selected.
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SSG (Join to see)
For promotion to SFC and above the DA Photo was a HUGE deal, until this year's board, at which time they removed the DA Photo from the board packet.
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The only way to have any OSR show up in your awards section is for the S1 to go in and actually manually type in the dates of qualifying service.
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CW2 (Join to see)
Wow, so someone actually took the time to go in and screw up my record, CSM. Haha, awesome.
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CSM Mike Maynard
Yep, they don't have a date/time-stamp on when things are entered/changed on eMILPO or you could do some detective work to see exactly who changed it, but it has to be someone that has read/write access to your record, which is usually only some S1/G1 folks in your chain.
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1SG (Join to see)
There is a "tattle tail" tracker built into the Emilpo system that logs the user creditials that accessed a SM's record; however it usually takes someone with total access that knows how to work the program.
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