commanding officer
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Its the commanding officer of the command you are attached. The program director is a mere pawn in the hospital heirarchy
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Your opening question, that you have only 8 posts, and your username . . .all make for a potentially very-entertaining thread.
That's who signs your annual military evaluation for you? (FitRep for Navy)
Mine was signed by a 2 star throughout residency.,,
No. It's weird that this topic has come up twice in a week, but, as discussed on the other thread, the Army medical corps has parallel chains of command. I think part of the confusion arises because one's 'commander' in the Army carries a very specific set of implications, responsibilities, and authorizations. It's not just the first officer who is above you. As an example, Private Snuffy's platoon leader is the first officer in his COC, but his 'commander' is his company commander.
I always understood the dual chains in the Army, but always assumed there was someone above that company commander person, like an O6 or so that oversaw them and was officially the CO.
I find it weird that a an O3 would be the official commanding officer for senior physicians.
It's largely an administrative role. General officers fall under the same organizational hierarchy whereas they belong to a company but there is no way an O-3 is going to tell an O-7 what to do. I guess it might be easier to think of company commanders in the medical field as the HR department making sure all the boxes are checked while your direct supervisor has more of a legal authority over you
So who is the person that is ultimately the Commanding Officer? The one who holds court martial authority, etc
Well, there's always someone higher, but the O-6's commanding officer is still the company commander. At a TDA unit, like a hospital, there is a troop commander, which is usually an O-5 and is kind of the equivalent of a battalion commander. It obviously makes for an interesting dynamic when an O-3 tries to exercise his authority over an O-5 or O-6, but most O-3s are pretty savvy about when to press the issue. And to answer your original question, our OERs (AKA fitreps) stay within the medical COC as much as possible.
The company commander holds non-judicial punishment authority. In theory, the troop commander is the first CO in the chain to hold convening authority, albeit only for a summary court-martial.
Interesting. And yeah, I meant NJP and couldn't think of the dang term for some reason so thanks for reminding me!
Very interesting overall as there is obviously significant difference in the Navy medical world. Our CO is the ultimate for everything. They sign my FitRep, sign my bonus paperwork, etc, etc. In larger commands some authority, but not the responsibility, is delegated to lower levels, such as the dept head bottom lining leave requests but there is only one chain of command and only one ultimate responsible party for all.
I always knew about the dual chain thing in the Army, but always assumed it was essentially delegated authority from the Hospital CO.
It sort of is delegated from the hospital CO, inasmuch as that person is typically where the chains of command converge. That is, both the troop commander and deputy chiefs will report to the hospital CO.
Understanding that there's a risk of a grass-is-always-greener effect here, I think the Navy's approach is better. Personally, I think the concept of unified chain of command isn't just important on macro- or doctrinal levels, and the Army medical corps is a great example of why. The military chain doesn't have the first clue about what we do or the resources we require to do it. They are singularly focused on checking their boxes. And my clinical chain of command has shown no interest in intervening on behalf of its physicians whenever the admin gurus break out their pitchforks.
Your CO is Barak Obama. It goes: Residents -> Program Director -> Barak Obama. Feel free to contact him directly if you have questions or concerns.
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I saw a FITREP signed by the president once. It was handwritten and yet they didn't reject it.
"Mr. President, Sir, you failed to mention anything about EO compliance in the comments section. We're going to need you to make corrections. We need this back by COB yesterday, Sir. You'll have to tell the Prime Minister to wait."
I've heard of someone that had a presidential FitRep and still failed to select. Now that's complete third person story, but would be pretty interesting if true
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