Should the NCO who wins NCO of the Quarter 3 times in a row be NCO of the Year? Or the fellow who wins only the 4th Quarter?

CW5...yes...it is when it became true, it did become a "progressive board". However, we had the MP School, the Chem School, the WAC HQ, and the Garrison each having their own competition--the Schools had DS of the year later, the Garrison had NCO of the year, period. So trust me, when you win the first three in a row...you end up as the Weird One who stumped the chumps. Although you do get a nice letter of commendation and a nifty plaque. DS of the Year for the entire installation was evolving at that time. We didn't yet give a set of dress blues or a trip to Hawaii. Sure as heck did after that! Same thing at the McAdemy...Disting Grad had to be a CSM...not an SFC (P) who just pinned on MSG...Consider the fellow who exceeded the 1,000 pt system for SSG and the Army had no policy to promote. Duh. 1,000 pt system. Exceeds 1,000 pts. What to do? Got that fixed. Women used to pull guard duty in pairs and only in well-lit areas with good security (this is with weapons and ammo, you know..kinda defeats the idea of a guard, does it not?). Well, we brought that forward as "women end up pulling guard twice as often as a man!"--got that fixed too. Attitudes R Us! Be sure to read my next book...

CW2 Mason...AH, but for a not so brief shining moment, in the Installations that time forgot, until the DS of the XX was created, people competed first as NCOs and in some cases like mine NCOs competed against DS whom were of course, also NCOs. We also had Instructor of the XXX and so on. However, in a base with more than one School, it took time for the overarching "of the year" thing to evolve for the entire installation because the Garrison also had their own "of the year"...things finally evolved into Soldier of the Year, NCO of the Year, DS of the Year, Instructor of the Year (and yes, a DS could be two of the four!).

Wow....it's hard to believe. I can see it happening though.