They are pretty objective on how they choose residents. Although some military residents tend to think that it is still the ol' boy network, I found out this not to be the case. There is a resident in Portsmouth who never physically went there before getting selected (did internship in Hawaii and was not able to fly for an interview). If you don't get selected this year, do operational medicine and try to publish as much as you can. This will give you points on the application. I'll try to publish like crazy if I don't get selected this year.