Flaws in senior NCOs’ records can end careers

Moral waivers have stopped and this is a good thing. I still have a problem with this considering PTSD is still not treated right by the military. Drug use and alcohol abuse unfortunately often go with PTSD when they are self-medicating. What if they had been written up for one of these only to have it discovered later the soldier was actually suffering from PTSD instead? Do they remove the document from the file? Do they consider this at all? Do they treat a recovering PTSD soldier, still ready, willing and able to serve with the respect they should have had all along?

So many issues within these new rules it makes my head spin just thinking about them given the fact we've read so many reports of PTSD soldiers being punished for PTSD instead of helped to recover.

Flaws in senior NCOs’ records can end careers

By Jim Tice - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Aug 8, 2009 9:49:49 EDT

The Army will soon start screening senior NCOs with the aim of kicking out those with problem records.

All sergeants first class and above with 20 or more years of active service will be subject to the reviews, which will target members of the Regular Army and the Army Reserve component of the Active Guard and Reserve program.

Members whose records document problems with conduct, morality, performance or professionalism could be separated under the new Qualitative Management Program (QMP), approved July 23 by Thomas R. Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs. The active component has about 41,000 sergeants first class, 12,000 master sergeants and 3,700 sergeants major, but officials did not say how many of those are retirement-eligible and also subject to review under QMP.

Under the program, a soldier’s record will be flagged if one of the following documents is received by Human Resources Command (HRC) for filing in a soldier’s Official Military Personnel File:

• General officer letter or memorandum of reprimand.

• Conviction by courts-martial or Article 15.

• NCO Evaluation Report documenting a relief for cause action.

• A rating of 4 (fair) or 5 (poor) in the senior rater performance and potential blocks of the NCO evaluation report.

• An Academic Evaluation Report indicating a soldier has failed an NCO Education System course.

When HRC receives one of the documents, the command will notify the soldier that he will be considered for separation from service by a centralized promotion board.

The move to boot out senior NCOs with such records comes as the Army is tightening standards for who can stay and in what numbers. Since the active Army recently hit its end-strength goal of 547,000 soldiers, it has suspended re-enlistment bonuses. The service also had cut its recruiting goal of 78,000 to 65,000, but recently was authorized to add 22,000 soldiers to help meet the demands of fighting two wars. The Army also has stopped allowing enlistment of recruits who needed waivers for past misconduct, such as criminal activity or drug use.
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Flaws in senior NCOs records can end careers