CLARIFYING GUIDANCE PERTAINING TO FITNESS REPORT OMISSION CRITERIA
MARADMIN 209/26 · May 5, 2026 · Source
Do You Actually Need That Fitness Report This Year?
A new MARADMIN just clarified when reporting officials can skip your annual fitrep.
And for Reserve Marines especially, the rules around omission are narrower than some commands have assumed.
Here is what changed, what it means for you, and what to do next.
Reference: MARADMIN 209/26, signed 05 May 2026. Underlying authority: MCO 1610.6B, Marine Corps Performance Evaluation System Manual.
The old problem
Annual fitrep schedules are built to feed promotion board timelines.
But sometimes two reporting occasions land close together, and commands were omitting annual reports to avoid redundant paperwork.
The problem: not everyone was applying the omission rules consistently.
Some Marines who were board-eligible were having reports omitted. That left promotion boards without current information on Marines who were actively in the zone.
That is the gap this MARADMIN closes.
The new rule in one line
You can skip an annual fitrep if another report is coming within 180 days. But not if the Marine is board eligible, and not if the report would be adverse.
How the omission rules actually work
The general permission:
Reporting officials can omit an Annual (AN) or Annual Reserve (AR) fitrep if they know another reporting occasion is coming within 180 days.
(Yes, that part is fairly permissive on its face.)
But there are two hard stops.
Stop 1: Board-eligible Marines do not get omissions.
If a Marine is in any zone for any HQMC board, the annual report must happen.
This includes:
✦ Promotion boards ✦ Command boards ✦ School boards ✦ Slating boards
Any zone. Any board. No exceptions here.
The logic is straightforward. Fitreps exist to inform CMC talent management decisions. Omitting a report for a Marine the board is actively evaluating defeats the entire purpose.
Stop 2: Adverse reports cannot be omitted.
If the report would document misconduct, substandard performance, or other adversity, it cannot be skipped.
There is a follow-on rule worth knowing:
If a command omits an annual report and adversity happens later, that adversity must be captured on the next natural reporting occasion. It does not disappear just because the annual was omitted.
The one carve-out: academic training under 12 months.
If a Marine is assigned to academic training lasting less than 12 months, the omission is authorized regardless of board eligibility.
Why? Because an academic fitrep will capture the period properly.
The applicable report type (Grade Change, Transfer, From TAD, etc.) picks up the coverage.
One additional note here: students are encouraged but not required to submit correspondence to the president of the board considering them. Check the specific board announcement MARADMIN for instructions on how to do that.
Why this is a big deal
This matters most to Reserve Marines because the AR report is specifically named alongside the AN report throughout this guidance.
Reserve reporting cycles already have more moving parts than active duty. Drill status, periods of active duty, gaps in coverage, academic training. There are more opportunities for a well-intentioned command to rationalize skipping a report.
This MARADMIN draws a clean line:
If you are board eligible, your reporting official does not have discretion to omit your annual report. Full stop.
If you are a Reserve Marine in or near a promotion zone and your annual report has not shown up in MOL, that is worth a conversation with your S-1 now. Not after the board convenes.
A smaller note for active-duty Marines
This guidance applies to the Total Force, so active-duty Marines are fully covered here too. The board-eligibility and adverse-report restrictions apply identically. If you are in a promotion zone, your AN report cannot be omitted.
The bottom line
Omissions are allowed when another report is coming within 180 days.
Omissions are never allowed when you are board eligible.
Omissions are never allowed when the report would be adverse.
Academic training under 12 months is the one exception to the board-eligibility rule.
What to do with this
If you are a Reserve Marine in a promotion zone:
- Log into MOL and confirm your fitrep history is current.
- Verify your next reporting occasion is documented and on schedule.
- If anything looks missing or delayed, contact your unit S-1 immediately. Do not wait.
If you are a Reserve reporting official (RS or RO):
- Review your Marines' board eligibility status before omitting any AR or AN report.
- If a Marine is in any zone for any HQMC board, write the report. No exceptions.
- If adversity has occurred and a prior report was already omitted, document it on the next natural occasion per MCO 1610.6B Chapter 5.
If you are an IMA or IRR Marine:
✦ Your mobilization and assignment periods still generate reporting occasions. ✦ If you are approaching board eligibility, confirm with your IMA coordinator or MMIA that your fitrep coverage is intact. ✦ When in doubt, email the POC: SMB_MANPOWER_MMRP-30@USMC.MIL or call Maj Queen at 703-432-0514.
This is written by a reservist, for reservists. It is not an official publication of HQMC or MARFORRES. Always verify guidance with your command or unit S-1 before acting on any article or summary.
Need a shorter version of this? A one-paragraph summary exists. Need a deeper breakdown of how AR report timing works across different Reserve duty statuses? That can be written too. Let me know.