PERSCOM Notes

I want to reflect on my short year as chief of the Enlisted Engineer Branch and provide some perspectives on what I have learned and observed. It has been one of the most rewarding jobs of my 21 years of service in the Army, and I want to thank everyone who has assisted me in this effort.

Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) Health

The health of the enlisted force in the Engineer Regiment is the best it has been in more than a decade. Sixteen of our 21 MOSs are at or over 100 percent strength, and the projections for the future are very good. This is a great improvement in many of our MOSs, especially the 12 series- combat engineer and bridge crew member (mostly attributable to my predecessors). The good news is that we have recovered from the mid-80 to low-90 percent range to well over 100 percent in each of these skills. Because of this, we have had to place these MOSs in the Fast Track and the Excellence in Retention Program (ERP). Through Fast Track, we sent out memorandums to numerous soldiers in the 12 series inviting them to voluntarily reclassify into shortage MOSs in the Engineer Regiment or the Army in general. Currently, the ERP program restricts reenlistment for retraining only. This is why many of you found your reenlistment options reduced as of May. Once we meet our goal of 122 soldiers in 12B and 39 soldiers in 12C, we w ill reinstate normal reenlistment options. These programs will end when we reach our goals-by each MOS through volunteers-or in September, when we will select enough soldiers for reclassification to meet our goals.

Based on the above information, the strength of engineer MOSs in the units is close to or over 100 percent in the aggregate. Certain ranks are not up to strength. Generally, sergeants and staff sergeants are short in units across the Army because of the increased requirements for drill sergeants and recruiters.

There are some MOSs which continue to run short-00B divers, 52E prime-power-production specialists, and airborne soldiers in 62E and 62J engineer-equipment-operator specialties. Any soldier wishing to transition into one of these skills is encouraged to contact his retention noncommissioned officer (NCO) or Engineer Branch for more details-we need you!

Communication/Career Opportunities

Do you know who your assignment manager is or your professional development NCO (PDNCO)? You should! These people will work your next assignment and decide where you will go. If you want some input into this, you need to know who they are and open up lines of communication. Many of you do and find that although you do not always get your first choice (or even your second), you usually can find an acceptable location. Remember, filling out and submitting a Department of the Army Form 4187, Personnel Action, does work! We may not be able to grant all submitted requests, BUT if you don't send one, we won't know your request. If you have more than a year's time on station in the continental United States or are within a year of being eligible to return from overseas, you need to submit a form NOW! Keep on top of this action: call to make sure it arrived, and begin your dialogue with your assignment manager. You need to make the effort to find what is open and let your wishes be known. If you abdicate your vote in this process and do nothing, don't complain.

Your PDNCO is the second key player in this process. We choose three NCOs, one in each Career Management Field (12, 51, and 81), because of their excellent performance and experience. We charge them with the responsibility to review the assignment made by the assignment manager to ensure that it is beneficial for your professional development. These NCOs understand the key elements, positions, and career-enhancing.. (and terminating) assignments in their field and make sure that you are not given an assignment where you will not be able to progress. They try to avoid assigning you to back-to-back TDA assignments, even though requested, because such assignments are detrimental to career progression. Remember these NCOs are looking out for your best interests and the needs of the Army. If they have failed to meet your expectations or requests, feel free to contact either the branch SGM or this office directly. We are willing to review, with an open mind and a fresh look, any assignment made. If you have questio ns or concerns about the correct path for promotion and professional development, one of the best sources is the guidance for promotion boards and the review and analysis of the board after it has met. You can find this on the Engineer School's Web site under the Engineer Personnel Proponency Office.

Noncommissioned Officer Evaluation Reports (NCOERs)

Throughout my time in the Army, I constantly have been educated on the importance of our NCOER system-counseling sessions and writing NCOERs well so they "communicate effectively" to both the rated NCO and his professional evaluation board. I heard it so many times that I thought it overkill. However, once in this position, I reviewed a large number of these documents and clearly saw that the leaders in our Regiment had not learned these lessons. In many cases, unfortunately, the one damaged by this lack of knowledge is the rated NCO! The biggest problem is lack of consistency between the rater and the senior rater-Leaving the board the job of sorting out who was correct. If the senior rater disagrees with the rater, the senior rater can annotate his portion of the NCOER to clarify the discrepancy. If he does not and an inconsistency exists between his comments and the blocks that he marks, the reviewer should nonconcur and submit a memorandum of explanation along with the NCOER. This keeps the board from having to interpret and guess the intent of the rating chain. The following are examples of NCOER problems:

* One or two "Excellence" ratings, "Fully Capable" overall rating, and a "2/1" by the senior rater with a "Promote Now" bullet: In this situation, I would expect that the NCO would be among the best and not "Fully Capable."

* One or two "Excellence" ratings, "Among the Best," overall rating, and a "3/3" by the senior rater with a "Promote Ahead of Peers" bullet. In this situation, the senior rater's block ratings either are too low or the rest of the evaluation is too high.

* One to two percent of the NCOERs I have reviewed DID NOT have a comment on promotion potential. It is critical to let the board know what you think.

These examples clearly show an inconsistency, and if the rater and senior rater cannot agree on how to present a consistent picture to the board, the reviewer NEEDS to take the correct steps to give the board the correct impression. An unclear representation to the board puts good NCOs at risk when eligible for promotion and can fail to clearly indicate those NCOs who are not as deserving. A very good source for NCOER information (both the administrative process and content) is PERSCOM Online at The Adjutant General Directorate Web site for NCOER Newsletters.

My Replacement

I have been honored and privileged to serve in this position for the past year. Unfortunately, it is ending too soon. Lieutenant Colonel Pete Taylor will replace me in August. He is a superb officer who will serve the Regiment well in this important capacity. I encourage you to provide him the same support and advice that you did for me-it was all very helpful. Thanks to all.

Lieutenant colonel Luce is the Branch Chief for Engineer Enlisted Assignments.

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