Your NCOER support form holds more power over your military career than you realize, yet most soldiers treat it like meaningless paperwork. Sergeant Cruz breaks down the harsh reality that eight out of ten NCO raters completely ignore this critical document, leading to watered-down evaluations and career stagnation for countless soldiers.
We explore the strategic importance of the DA Form 2166-9-1-Alpha and how it serves as your roadmap to evaluation success. From setting realistic goals within your first 30 days to documenting daily accomplishments, this conversation reveals why smart soldiers use the support form proactively rather than reactively. You'll discover how pages three and four contain hidden guidance on Army Leadership Requirements that directly impact your evaluation ratings.
The discussion covers the sobering truth about rater control over evaluations and why appeals processes fail without proper documentation. Sergeant Cruz shares practical strategies for maintaining monthly records, aligning with rater expectations, and protecting yourself from evaluation disputes. We also address the knowledge gap in professional military education, explaining why these critical skills aren't taught at BLC or ALC, leaving soldiers to learn through trial and error.
Whether you're transitioning from specialist to sergeant or looking to improve your evaluation outcomes, this episode provides actionable insights for taking control of your NCOER process. Subscribe for more essential military knowledge that fills the gaps in formal training.
Thanks for listening, please download and leave a review.
Remember, you don't have to embrace the suck, if you have the right tools in your ruck!
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Episode Transcript
GAPAM AR-623-3 is very specific that just because
something is on your supportform, it doesn't mean that it
has to be on your evaluation.
What do I mean by that?
I mean, if you piss your raideroff, they have the utmost
control to just water it down.
(00:21):
There are appeals process.
Yes, they can work, but if youdon't have no data, your appeal
is going to go nowhere.
If you want a better NCOER,then stop ignoring the support
(00:43):
form, this one sheet of paper.
It's going to shape how leadersevaluate you, but most NCOs
they just treat it like it'sbusy work.
Just don't be that soldier.
Welcome to the Roger SarntPodcast where we talk all things
Army and I'm your host, sarnCruz and today we're talking
(01:04):
about the NCOER Support Form2166-9-1-Alpha and why it even
exists in AR and DAPAM 623-3.
But without further ado, let'sget started.
So this is an overview of whata DA form 2166-9-1 alpha.
(01:26):
If you want a more in-depthreview of it, I did a video on
it before.
If you want me to walk youthrough one, because I have the
Army Virtual Desktop at home now, just drop it in the comments
and we can do a video on that.
I'll do it.
I'll do it live, I don't care,but just let me know in the
comments.
So the 2166-9-1 Alpha it's thesupport form.
(01:52):
It's literally your roadmap toa solid NCOER.
That's literally it.
It's supposed to be draftedwithin your first 30 days of
your rater starting the ratingperiod.
Once they say, hey, sarn Cruzis your rater, I have 30 days to
draft this document with youand sit down and we're going to
(02:13):
discuss what your performancegoals and objectives are and
there's a block that you'regoing to write all of those and
this is how I am going to makesure that you meet your
objectives and your goals.
Now, on the flip side, if youput something that's
unattainable, then you're justhurting yourself.
For instance, if you are 40credits away from a bachelor's,
(02:39):
you're not going to say I wantto get my bachelor's degree
within this rating period,because you're setting yourself
up for failure.
What you really want to do issay I want to accomplish 20, 15,
10 semester hours and then,within that rating period, when
you do it, then that that goeson there as you are knocking out
(03:00):
your goals and objectives.
Another thing that this isreally good for is you can
document your daily impacts andyour accomplishments right, and
the good thing about that isbecause you have access to it.
You, on your own, can go inthere and you can check that
block, or you can write down oryou can type in what it is that
you did.
So if I say I need you to getHHC 72 up and you knock that out
(03:25):
within the first quarter firsttwo months whenever you knocked
it out, you can go ahead and putit in that block, got it up and
then you put the amount of time.
Another thing is make sure thatyou keep a running log on your
own phone, on your own greenbook.
However, it is that you writethings down.
I personally, I have an iPad,but use that to document what
(03:46):
you're doing, because, whetheryou like it or your NCO is going
to tell you give me all youraccomplishments.
It's going to happen.
You fight it if you want to, Idon't care, but it's going to
happen.
And what you got to do is yougot to be ready to provide this
information, because I can't.
As an NCO, I have six otherstaff sergeants, another three
(04:08):
sergeants that I'm probablygoing to have to rate, and it's
hard to keep track of everything.
Can I do it?
Sure, but if you can help me,then you're helping yourself.
Another thing that this form isgood for it's going to align
like you're aligning yourselfwith your Raiders expectations,
because when I, as the Raider, Iput this information on paper
(04:31):
and we're discussing it, when wesit down and we do that initial
counseling, the initial supportform, we're discussing things
that are measurable what myexpectations are of you as a
leader, as a soldier, as amember of the organization, as a
squad leader.
I'm discussing all of this withyou and you and I are going to
(04:53):
talk about how we can cometogether to make the
organization better.
And I'm going to put that in abullet format and therefore you
know and I know what is expectedof you during this rating
period.
The importance of it is trackinghow you perform against the
attributes and the competencies,because I'm not just making up
(05:15):
this rating scheme on my own.
I'm following what it is thatthe army tells me to do in order
to accurately rate you.
And, again, I've done videos onthe attributes and competencies
.
The attributes and competencies.
(05:37):
You can go back and watch those.
I've done podcasts on it.
You can also on the2166-1-alpha let's just call it
the-1-alpha.
So on the-1-alpha, if you go topage three and page four.
It has the attributes and ithas the competencies and it has
all the bullets nested in thereon how you can measure yourself
against those, against theleadership requirement model,
because that's what it's allcalled and therefore you already
(05:59):
know you're working your waytowards that.
The form it's treated like itdoesn't matter, but it does
because at the end of the ratingperiod it's going to help your
rater write accurate and it'sgoing to help your raider write
accurate and stronger bullets.
That's the thing.
Like I told you, you have DAPAM, you have AR623-3, but it's not
(06:24):
telling you exactly how towrite bullets.
You have AR25-50, which is armywriting, but it's just telling
you that you have to be clear,concise and to the point.
It doesn't tell you how towrite a bullet, but these pages
on the Dash 1, alpha 3 and 4,they have the information you
need and it's so overlooked Icannot tell you.
I made a video on TikTok on justhow to write an NCOER bullet
(06:46):
and it blew up more than what Iexpected.
But I did know that there's alack of knowledge when it comes
to writing NCOER bullets or justNCOERs period, and that's a gap
that we have.
And when you're making thatconversion from specialist to
sergeant, you must understandhow it works.
(07:08):
You don't want to let someoneput these filler bullets inside
your NCOER and you don't evenknow that it's a filler bullet,
because the information has tobe quantifiable and qualifiable.
Quantitative and qualitativeright how much did you do for
how many people, how much didyou do for how many pieces of
(07:30):
equipment?
And you have to understand howto write that in two lines.
You don't have a paragraph.
So there's an art to writingthe NCOER.
But in order to write saidNCOER you have to have the
information.
And this information is trackedanytime you want to go into EES
and update it on the Dash 1Alpha.
(07:51):
It just makes monthlycounseling a lot easier and they
make it more meaningful.
Because you sit down with meand you know that I'm going to
be discussing things that you'vedone.
And now I'm going to sit downonce we've discussed exactly
what it is that you did and howyou did it and how you updated
(08:11):
it, and I'm updating it.
Now we're going to discuss theart of putting that into a
bullet format, because now itturns into a small one-on-one
LPD, a little leader's time,training right Professional
development.
Because if we have time whichwe make it then I can show you
something.
It makes the counseling sessionmore meaningful.
One of the most importantthings is that it's going to
(08:34):
show proof of your development.
It's going to show proof ofyour actions.
I'm not just making things up.
You're not just making thingsup.
It's documented and it's there.
And if I were you, as a juniorNCO or senior NCO whoever's
listening to this as aspecialist moving over, even as
a junior one, two or three, ifyou're ahead of the curve and
you're now looking at this stuff, I'm talking to you guys.
(09:02):
This podcast is mainly forjunior troops to learn.
Yeah, if you are trackingeverything, what I would suggest
is, every time you make achange and you guys both discuss
, just run a copy.
Keep it with you in your I LoveMe book for the rating period,
because the DAPAM AR623-3 isvery specific that just because
(09:22):
something is on your supportform, it doesn't mean that it
has to be on your evaluation.
What do I mean by that?
I mean, if you piss your raideroff, they have the utmost
control to just water it down.
There are appeals process.
Yes, they can work, but if youdon't have no data, your appeal
(09:43):
is going to go nowhere.
Now you have to depend onsomeone else.
If they witnessed it, nowyou're looking for witness
statement.
It's way too much work.
Else, if they witnessed it, nowyou're looking for witness
statement it's way too much work.
So every time you update it andyou uh discuss it with your
counselor which with me, let'ssay, for instance, I'm
counseling with your leader yourun a copy, have them sign it.
What, however, you want to do?
It, just do it.
(10:03):
I'm telling you it'll pay inthe future and then it gives you
control over your ownevaluation process, because now
you have something to visitevery single month, because a
lot of times what you're goingto do is you're going to wait
four or five months, six months,seven months, and you never
know, I might get pulled out andput into another position, I
(10:26):
might get swapped out forsomeone else, I may be in an E8
slot and I'm an E7 and an E8comes in and I got to go.
Now you have a change of radarsituation in which now you, if
you didn't use the support form,now you're struggling because
you got to go and fabricate allthis information.
Try and remember everything.
It's just, it just doesn't work.
(10:47):
Okay, and this is just what Ihave to say to you just make
sure you use the form.
Now let's talk about whathappens to the ncos that skip
the form, because you may usethe form and that's good, but a
lot I'm talking about.
I would put my hand on fire andsay eight to nine out of ten
(11:09):
liters do not use this form.
So if you don't use the form,you're going to get vague NCOERs
, your achievements are going toget overlooked and you're going
to have missed opportunitiesbecause now you're going off off
off the top of the dome, and weall know that in the army
there's too much going on toremember any and everything that
(11:29):
you've done in the past 120,160, 180 days, whatever it is
right.
So that's when you startgetting those, those filler
bullets, those made the hardright instead of taking the easy
left, whatever it is that thatthey talk about you're gonna
forget.
Like I said, you're gonnaforget things that you've done.
They're gonna forget becausethey have so much, so many
(11:50):
people now they're looking atold ncoers that you've done.
They're going to forget becausethey have so much, so many
people Now they're looking atold NCOERs that they've made and
then they're trying to pairsomething and it's just oh man,
it's just something you justdon't want to go through.
So just make sure that you keeptrack of the expectations you
got, to keep track of theroadmap to success, man, like I
just previously stated, becauseif not, it's just gonna.
(12:11):
It's not the one you want.
Okay, the 2166-9-1 alpha isn'tjust a requirement, it's a
strategy.
If you're a smart soldier, theydon't just react to ratings,
they shake the ratings.
They get into the habit ofbeing proactive, which is what I
(12:34):
want you guys to do beproactive.
We we always talk about thearmy's reactive.
We don't do things untilsomething happens.
And it's the same thing withyour ncoer.
You're not going to be upsetuntil they forget bullets and
you get a trash ncoer, and nowyou're upset.
So do me a favor share thiswith your team leaders, your
squad leaders.
Drop a comment If you'veactually filled one of these out
(12:58):
this quarter or ever like.
Subscribe.
Follow for more.
Roger Sarns soldier breakdownsthat they don't teach at BLC or
ALC Cause I'm telling you I wasa BLC teacher instructor, and if
it wasn't me doing it, it's notin the curriculum.
We go over the what is thatcalled the leadership
requirement model and we're notrequired to go into the NCOER,
(13:21):
but we did, though.
But yeah, they don't teach thisover there at BLC, they don't
teach it at ALC.
Once you're at ALC, you're MOSspecific, so where are you going
to learn it?
I'm going to teach it to youand then remember you don't have
to embrace the suck if you gotthe right tools in your rug.
I'm Sarn Cruz and I'll see youin the next one.
Peace, roger Sarn.
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