Officer Special Selection Boards 

Title 10, U.S. Code authorizes the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) to convene a Special Selection Board (SSB) for an active-duty or reserve officer who SECNAV determines meets one of the following criteria:

1.  An officer who should have been considered by a promotion selection board from in or above the promotion zone, but was not due to an administrative error.

2.  An officer who was considered by a promotion selection board from in or above the promotion zone in an unfair manner, which is defined as:

-  The action of the promotion board was contrary to law, involved material error of fact, or material administrative error that is more likely than not to have deprived the officer concerned of a fair and impartial consideration by the board.

-  The promotion board did not have before it for its consideration material information that, when properly recorded in or removed from, an officer’s record would have been essential to a substantially accurate, complete, and fair portrayal of the officer’s career.

IMPORTANT:  An SSB shall not be convened to consider an officer who, through the exercise of reasonable diligence, might have discovered and taken steps to correct that error or omission on which the original board based its decision against promotion. 

I feel I fit the criteria above and want to request an SSB, what do I do now?

1.  Thoroughly review SECNAVINST 1420.1B.

2.  Prepare an SSB request using this Template (requests do not require command endorsement and are addressed to the SECNAV via Commander, Navy Personnel Command (PERS-80)).  The Fiscal Year (FY) is not the current FY, but the FY for the SSB you are requesting.  For example, if you should have been considered by the FY-12 board but were not, you would submit a request for an FY-12 SSB.

3.  Submit your request.

Navy Personnel Command

PERS-801

5720 Integrity Drive

Millington, TN 38055-8010

4.  You will receive notification via email from PERS-80 that your request has been received.  The process is intentionally deliberate, so please understand that it can take up to 12 months for the SECNAV to make a final determination. 

5.  Once the SECNAV makes a determination, PERS-80 will inform you of the decision via email.  If you are granted an SSB, please use this link for more information: Special Selection Board Information. 

POC Phone Number:  (901) 874-2322 or DSN 882-2322