Should an NCO who wins boards receive a better evaluation than one who shows better performance?
That's poses a very interesting question. I think that
winning an NCO board definitely warrants mentioning on an NCOER. I also believe that a board identifies that
an NCO knows the right answer but the real question would be; does he/she know
how to apply it? When I add this
question, I would say that it should not be something that puts one NCO above
the other when it is evaluation time.
The evaluation should encompass their entire ability and
performance. Somewhere around my second
year as a Drill Sergeant, my unit was visited by the Drill Sergeant of the
Year. He was a great guy but had only
been on the trail for a year and that year was spent jumping from board to
board until he won DS of the year. He was
then whisked from TRADOC unit to TRADOC unit to give us all pointers (critic)
us on how to be a Drill Sergeant….this from a Drill Sergeant who never led
Privates. To think that he would get a
better rating than all of the other Drill Sergeants standing in the hot Georgia
sun in full battle rattle teaching privates to shoot, well that hardly seems
right.