What can I do about my extended annual NCOER? Will this impact my career?

** Just before I was about to post this, I reread your comments, and this finally stood out to me - “The other NCOs who I'm being rated against came to our section long after me. I had several senior NCOs review the NCOER that I did and they all agreed that my bullets were very strong. However, I noticed my rater changed a few to met standard bullets.” In other words, you submitted suggested bullets which several senior NCOs said were very strong and the rater changed them to ‘weaker’ comments. I’ll let the rest of my comments stand just in case I’m not interpreting what you said correctly, but if this is the case, then everything takes a different context. My inference from the new context is that your rater doesn’t agree with you being a strong NCO during this rating period and probably discussed this with the senior rater. If that’s the case, then the frank discussion I mentioned below will likely be “Yep. That’s what I intended”. **

In a word: No.

Side note: writing your own evaluation is nothing new, and frankly it’s a good practice and one that I’ve done for much of my career in the Army. I’m not saying that I wrote it and the rater/senior rater signed it, but rather than I always submitted a “suggested” draft of the evaluation along with my support form. It’s amazing how much of that ‘draft’ appears in the final evaluation.

The core element of your post is that you had strong bullets, but don’t agree with the evaluation. If that’s the entirety, then it’s very unlikely that you would find a remedy through the formal channels. Per HRC, “If you are simply dissatisfied with receiving a good report (for example with nothing but favorable comments) because you believe it should be better, you should be aware that it is difficult to successfully challenge the judgment of your rating officials with clear and convincing evidence that you deserve better. Even if successful, the remedy applied would probably be to remove the portions proven inaccurate or unjust, rather than raising the scores or block placements.”

You are correct in that a “qualified” rating is below the norm. There are many metaphors for it, but the one I usually go with is “you’re running in a group, and while you didn’t drop out, you did drop back and are at the tail end”. It’s understandable that they may have the opinion that you were not “the best of the best”, because the senior rater is limited on how many “most qualified” ratings they may give out, but there is no prohibition on “highly qualified” ones. Did you have a discussion with them about “qualified” vs “highly qualified”? If not, I suggest you do, and be direct and open about it – By saying “qualified” instead of “highly qualified”, the senior rater is saying “I think this NCO is promotable, but only if you’ve got slots left over after you have reviewed all his peers and promoted the strong ones”.

Now, will one “qualified” evaluation kill your career? No, but if you don’t have other strong evaluations to balance it, it will likely be a “smudge” on your “complete picture” (as opposed to a “black mark”) that selection boards will look at.

You really need to have a frank discussion with your senior rater and have him tell you directly that “Yes, my intent is to give you a ‘below the norm’ evaluation, and this is why” rather than “Oh, I wasn’t aware. I thought ‘qualified’ was the norm”. I have no idea of who your senior raters are, but unless this is the first time they are senior rating someone, they should already be aware.

What is your rater saying? Is there a mismatch between your performance (rater) and potential (senior rater)? An “average” rater block would be “met standard” and would be entirely consistent with a senior rater evaluation of “qualified”.

Now to some other things from your comment that aren’t making sense.

● The extended annual going for 14 months (OCT 22 – DEC 23) doesn’t sound right. An extended annual would normally be used to cover non-rated time for someone new to the unit that had an extended between the end of his last rating and the start of his new one. If you arrived in the unit in OCT 22 (the start of your rating period), but your current rater/senior rater didn’t become part of your established rating chain until JUN 22. Why were you not given a Change of Rater in MAY/JUN 23 by your previous rating chain? Waiving that aside for a second, the only reason for an extended annual in this case would be if you’re projected to depart in December and the senior rater did an optional extension to cover you so you wouldn’t have unrated time. Is this the case?

● You said there were no counseling dates completed. Are there any listed on the 2166? Signing your evaluation does not mean you agree with the rating given, but it does mean that you agree with the administrative information that is reflected on it. However, there is a big difference between “no formal counseling” and “no counseling”. The regulations do require that counseling is performed (and documented) using support forms for NCOs and officers, but anyone that’s been around the military for more than a week knows that often becomes an aspirational goal rather than a “must do” (in the same view that there is “mandatory” training and “MANDATORY” training). Even HRC does a side-ways acknowledgement of this as they state, “The absence of counseling will not be used as the sole basis for an appeal. However, the lack of counseling may be used to help support other claims made in an appeal.” That doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong – proper counseling SHOULD be an important part of a Soldier’s development, but the majority of leaders (NCOs and officers) don’t do it correctly.

Finally, “can you appeal an NCOER you don’t agree with”. Yes … in the same view that you could sue anyone for anything. Does your appeal have any merit, and will it go anywhere? As I stated previously unless there is strong evidence on your part, an appeal probably won’t.

Still, your best course of action is to have that frank discussion with your senior rater about the evaluation and the impact it will have. If the answer you get is along the lines of “yes, that’s what I intend”, then your only complaint is that ‘strong bullets’ are being used when you are receiving a ‘weak overall’ rating.

After all that if you truly feel there is still an injustice in the rating and that there are (strong) irregularities in the final evaluation, you could go to your senior rater’s rater and ask for a Commander’s Inquiry (see AR 623-3, chapter 4). Keep in mind the saying, “If you target the king, you better not miss”. Pay attention to the timelines involved, what the process entails, and the possible outcomes. In essence you are asking for your boss’s boss’s boss to look at the process. If there really is an issue, then it will come to light. If there isn’t and you are just dissatisfied with the rating “because you think you deserve better”, then you’re just going to make your situation worse.
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* https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN14342_AR623-3_FINAL.pdf