an ALARACT for removing SSN from NCOER?

SFC Jones,

There was an "informational packet" that came out in Sep'12 that stated that one of the significant changes would be that SSNs would only be required for the Rated NCO. That change never made it into the updated AR or DA PAM though.

But I did find a couple interesting things:

AR 623-3, 1-14d and DA Pam 623-3, 1-5d - Disclosure of a full nine-digit social security number (SSN) for the rated Soldier, the rater, and senior rater is voluntary. However, failure to provide verified SSNs will result in a delayed or erroneous processing of the evaluation report.

Also, in DA Pam 623-3, Table 3-2 (wrt Reviewer), it states "On the first line enter the reviewer’s name (last, first, MI, suffix) in capital letters/SSN (for example, 123–45–6789) (optional)/signature/validation.

So, it appears that SSNs are voluntary, but we know better as your SSN has to be on the document to be filed in your iPERMS, but the "(optional)" directly after the SSN entry for the Reviewer does seem to be truly voluntary.

I couldn't find anywhere else (in the AR or DA Pam) that led me to believe it was optional/voluntary for the Rated, Rater or Sr Rater.

I would be skeptical as well, especially since the new AR/DA PAM 623-3 was just released less than a month ago and still calls to have the full SSN on the NCOER for all of the rating chain.  

This is one reason you cannot have past NCOERs in your "leaders book" due to the PII of other individuals.