Tuesday, January 7, 2014

E-JDA points are probably a bad deal

There are two tracks to qualifying as a Joint Officer. One track involves serving in a JDAL billet, the traditional path. The other involves acquiring experience over time through experience, called E-JDA.

These discretionary points make sense on the outside. Rather than getting a "shot of joint" in one tour, you get joint experience over time, throughout your career. By the time you are an O-6, you would have over three years of experience and be eligible for JQO.

And yet, this doesn't work.



Go here for the results of the discretionary points boards:

http://www.public.navy.mil/BUPERS-NPC/OFFICER/DETAILING/JOINTOFFICER/Pages/JQSE-JDASelfNomination.aspx

Perusing these files, it's obvious that you have very little chance actually getting E-JDA credit unless you happen to be an O-5 or O-6.

Just using the active duty numbers from October 2013, I get the following:

O-3
Points Granted: 23.9
Points Denied: 264
Selection Percentage: 8.3%

O-4
Points Granted: 37.5
Points Denied: 295.9
Selection Percentage: 11.2%

O-5
Points Granted: 36.1
Points Denied: 92.5
Selection Percentage: 28.1%

Perusing the other months, I'm seeing similar results. Sadly, there isn't any really good guidance on submissions. I read the Joint Matters and wrote my two submissions accordingly, but both were denied.

My advice: don't plan on getting E-JDA credit as an O-3 or O-4 without contacting your detailer first and having a backup plan.