Just a couple points to make. I don't know your case personally, or your base, but hope you understand that it is not your post that assigns the ratings. The PEB does. There are three of them for the Army. Crystal City, Ft Lewis, and Ft Sam Houston. The MEB at your post writes the NARSUM, and then gives an opinion as to whether the condition "meets" or "fails" retention standards. After the SM signs the NARSUM, it goes to one of those three boards for adjudication.
If there is a problem at your post, I would suspect it is in the way the MEB doctors are writing the NARSUM. This points out why it is so crucial to read the NARSUM, and get mistakes corrected. If the impact of your injury is not clearly stated, and the PEB does not see an impact to being able to parfom your duty, the PEB isn't going to find a person unfit for a condition.
Take your example of arthritus. There needs to be documentation that this condition is the cause for your P3 profiled conditions. If you have a profile for bad knees, and bad shoulders, the conditions need to be linked back to arthritus or there is a good chance that the SM would get an Army rating of 10% for shoulders, and 10% for kness. This is where the SM needs to request an IMR, and show that they were diagnosed with arthritus, and the specialist linked the other issues to it.
A well written commanders statement also plays a key part. I am not saying there are not problems with the system. I know there are, because I went through it. I also believe very strongly that the soldiers need to share the blame as well. What I often see is a soldier who is in a huge rush to get out. They don't take their alloted time to look over their NARSUM, or 199, and don't want to appeal because it adds time. A soldier is always their number one advocate, and if they don't get very involved in the process, they get run over.
Every system works this way. A promotion board; the soldier has to get all their paperwork for points together, otherwise they have nothing. Finance; if a soldier is missing a special pay, it takes lots of work and frustration, but they have to be involved. It goes on and on. A system only works for you if you vest yourself into it. If not, then you end up bitter, and don't get what you deserve.
Joe
