National Guard Officers may be promoted through either a mandatory Department of the Army Review Board or a Federal Unit Vacancy Promotion Board. Both these boards are conducted in accordance with 32 U.S.C subsection 307. The vacancy promotion process, however, is not transparent and is not clearly defined in law or in Army/ Air Force Regulation. Vacancy promotions are becoming exponentially delayed. In 2012 it was common to expect a delay of approximately 70-90 days between receiving an appointment to the next higher grade in a federally recognized unit of the National Guard and receiving a federal recognition of that appointment (which allowed an officer to be paid in the next higher grade). In 2015 the expectation was between 150-180 days. In 2016 some promotion scrolls are taking longer than 250 days to complete the process. During this delay officers are performing duties in positions of higher responsibility and accountability, but not being able to wear the rank or be compensated for their duty. Transparency needs to exist in this process. Implementing regulations to allow back-pay and retroactively establishing date of rank to the date of state appointments would drastically reduce the impact of this delay on the individual Officer. In addition to reducing the personal impact for the officer that is waiting to promote, requiring the back-pay and the retroactive date of rank encourages those involved in the process to reduce the time taken to issue the federal recognition. This is an issue that affect every officer in the National Guard, and will continue to affect future officer promotions unless transparency and clarity is established in this process.