Would you rather see a written exam for NCO promotions in the Army?

I believe that ALL NCO Promotions should include a written Skills Qualification test. They should also include a Board portion, CONDUCTED IN PERSON and NEVER by a Centralized Board ONLY that can not see the individual nor question them directly.

ALL ACTIONS regarding the promotion or non promotion should be reported to the individual so that NOTHING .... NOTHING .... NOTHING ,,,, not related directly to either qualification or duty performance can at all be considered for any reason.

All factors of RACE, ETHNICITY, GENDER, and now Orientation and Transgender status are ELIMINATED from consideration. Equal Opportunity MUST become EQUAL FOR EVERYONE. ALL "Protected Classes" of individuals MUST BE ELIMINATED, so that only the best qualified Soldiers are selected for promotion, and that all NCOs not selected know EXACTLY why THAT board did not select them. The idea that the career of a loyal hard working NCO be determined by a board of individuals that has never seen them work or at a minimum spoken one word to them is unfair.

I think SSD covers that just fine.

Stretching out to all branches, I believe NCOs should be able to demonstrate the ability to lead. While serving in the Air Force, I have noticed many NCOs that I feel should not be in their position. They were able to stay out of trouble and take a multiple choice test which gave them their promotion.

We used to (yes, I am old) have to take an annual Skills Assessment/ Qualification Test. If you didn't pass it, you were Flagged and couldn't make Specialist, much less an NCO rank. It was difficult to administer, particularly in the Reserve in the days before computers were widespread, but I fully believe this or something like it would solve a lot of problems.

We did that before. It was called Skills Qualification Test (SQT). It should be given again

SGT let a old AF man say something. Back in the day promotions to the next higher rank was a combination of several things. One was a written test on your job knowledge, the other written test was general military knowledge. With a little studing a test taker could do very well on the test. Some people just can't take test well, I always did good on my test. Written test or fine but I believe a board should be included. If you jsst use written test you still don't know the man, you just know what's on the papers you have. I believe both is needed to judge the man, not just judgeing the paperwork.

There needs to be more training on counseling and writing NCOER. Some NCO's have become to dependent on copy and pasting bullets from Army Writer!

Proctored testing would truly evaluate MOS proficiency but then again, how many times have you had to do a job outside of your MOS for an extended time? In my case it was 5 years. How often does the technology change (Signal is a good example where we have fielded increments of gear different from the last every few years, also how many radios do we have now: PRCs 150, 155, 152, 154A, 117F, 117G, 1523E, MBTR, ICOM, etc)? The idea that a Soldier has to self study to remain proficient is unreasonable. They already have a day job.

I would rather see an impartial board process that redacts names and photos and sticks straight to evaluations, assignments and awards. If we are so concerned with photos showing the fatties not reported by our leadership then we can then also assume that all evaluations are flawed as well so our only recourse is to promote those who look good.

The SSD's do cover basic NCO and leader knowledge, but having it online typically means one thing. Cutting corners. There have been plenty of sergeants out there who just clicked "next" over and over again and took the test until they passed or someone gave them an answer key. I don't think the SSD's are an effective tool to teach or sharpen the tools in the NCO's toolbox.

I'd like to see a combo of a SQT test like they used to have along with a face to face board appearance.

I believe that your SSDs cover the basic soldier tasks a NCO needs to know but I would like to see MOS specific test.