You Decide: NCOER - An NCO Fails APFT/ABCP During Rated Period

CSM-

 I believe it depends entirely on the situtation behind the failure. If the NCO has recently injured themselves and failed in a large margin, showing that the NCO in question was not keeping up with his or her physical fitness while injured. Lets say they broke their arm, and they only failed the push-ups event, but came back next APFT and nearly maxed. I would see that as a "Success" for not only meetting, but surpassing the standard put before them. Take the same scenario and lets say that NCO fails the sit ups and run event, but passes push-ups. That would get a "Needs Much Improvement" for failure to maintain standard.

CSM,

This is a very situational question:

If the NCO in question has recently completed the recovery period from a long in the line of duty injury, i.e. didn't fall down the stairs drunk and break an ankle, and fails only marginally but recovers within the rating period, Success not annotating the previous failure because they recovered and met the standard if not within the allowed recovery period.

If the NCO in question has recently completed the recovery period from a long in the line of duty injury, i.e. didn't fall down the stairs drunk and break an ankle, and fails greatly but recovers within the rating period, Success anotating the previous failure because they met the standard but obviously did nothing to maintain themself during their injured time.

If the NCO has failed entirely on their own accord but meets the standard within the rating period Needs Much Improvement because NCO's are the standard bearers.  If you can only meet the standard when the bottom line drops then you have no business progressing in the military and should probably face the QMP to make room for those that do uphold the standards.

Raters comment on PERFORMANCE.  Senior Rater comments on POTENTIAL.  Thus, an accurate annotation of this NCO's performance from my perspective would be:  "Success" for improving from failure to passing.  Whether or not a BOARD reads the bullet has less to do with the most ACCURATE portayal of this NCOs performance during the rating period.

Furthermore, when this individual NCOER is compared against other NCOERs, the pattern becomes apparent.

Great question CSM....To answer you question, I think it can be any of the above.  As with this NCO (or Soldier or Officer for that matter), you have to look at more than just this one event. 

Was this NCO a substandard performer in everything they do and just happen to pass the AFPT / ABCP this one time, or were they an exceptional performer who happened to have one bad day when they took the APFT / ABCP?  How do they perform in every other aspect of their duty performance?  Are they constantly leading from the front or running from behind to try and catch up?

When I was a Battery Commander, I like to think I look at the total Soldier / NCO / Officer when making these decisions.  Of course, I was blessed with a phenomenal 1SG whom I'm proud to call a friend today that mentored and guided me to do the right thing when faced with these decisions.  

if they 100% are a no-go thoughout the entire rating period, id put "needs improvement".

But going with that, you can tell when you first look at a Soldier if he is gonna be borderline on a APFT, so if you wait till 1 week before their thru date and finally give them an APFT, then your failing as a leader.

But, if you identify the problem in time, and give them time to fix themselves, they sould be fine and id give em a "success".