WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 11, 2015) — Senior noncommissioned officer, or NCO, selection boards and the Qualitative Management Program, or QMP boards, scheduled for the second, third and fourth quarters of this fiscal year, will consider Soldiers in all components, E-6 through E-9, for possible involuntary separation.
Notification memos went out today for the March 2016 QMP board, said Ronald Simons, chief of enlisted retirements and separations in U.S. Army Human Resources Command’s, or HRC’s, Enlisted Transitions Branch, which manages enlisted Soldier QMP status.
“It is imperative that the Soldier review their AMHRR [Army Military Human Resources Record] because that is the record the selection board is going to be reviewing. If it is not up to date and correct, it is on the Soldier to make sure it is up to date and correct,” Simons said.
Per Military Personnel, or MILPER, Message 15-394, “Procedures for the FY16 QMP,” published Dec. 7, consideration for denial of continued service will occur when an NCO receives one or more occurrences related to poor conduct or performance based on:
– A general officer’s memorandum of reprimand
– Conviction by court martial or Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 15 punishment
– Department of the Army Form 2166-8, NCO Evaluation Report, or NCOER, with any of three things:
– Relief for cause
– Annotation of “no” in Part IV, for (Army values)
– Senior rating of 4 (fair) or 5 (poor) in the overall performance or potential blocks
– DA Form 2166-9-2, NCOER for E-6 through E-8 with any of three items:
– Relief for cause
– Annotation of “did not meet standards” in Part IV, Blocks C, D, E, F, G, H or I
– Annotation of “not qualified” in Part V, Block A
– DA Form 2166-9-3, NCOER for E-9, with any of three things:
– Relief for cause
– Annotation of “did not meet standards” in Part IV, Blocks A or E
– Annotation of “not qualified” in Part V, Block A
– Academic Evaluation Report, DA Form 1059, indicating NCO Education System, or NCOES, course failure
– Failure to qualify for promotion consideration to the next pay grade because of non-completion of NCOES for two categories:
– E-6 who, on attainment of 48 months’ time-in-grade, has not graduated from the Advanced Leaders Course
– E-7 who, on attainment of 48 months’ time-in-grade, has not graduated from the Senior Leaders Course
Simons, of HRC’s Enlisted Transitions Branch, said that on occasion, people do make mistakes in reviewing a Soldier’s file.
“If a Soldier finds something with the document that identified them for QMP consideration, and they don’t feel that it qualifies them for consideration, they should contact us. The reason being that sometimes a Soldier will get identified for QMP consideration and during the review of the documents, something might get overlooked – that the document does in fact not qualify for QMP consideration,” he said.
“So rather than present mitigating matters to the board president, it is easier to let us know up front. We can review it and if doesn’t qualify them, then we can remove that Soldier from consideration before it becomes a matter of board record,” Simons said.
Contact information is in MILPER 15-394, which is available on the HRC website.
“We review thousands and thousands of records and then it is not uncommon for somebody to just overlook something and say this document qualifies [the Soldier for QMP consideration], when in fact it doesn’t,” Simons said.
“And we can take care of that up front rather than after the fact. After the fact, it becomes much more difficult for the Soldier and for the Army.”
Leaders at all levels have a role to play in the process as well as the Soldier, Simons said.
“I would recommend that the leadership read the MILPER before they notify their Soldiers, and if they have any questions to contact us. That way, when they are counseling their Soldier, their questions have already been addressed, and if the Soldier comes up with additional questions, we can certainly work those at that time,” he said.
QMP EXEMPTIONS
There are four categories of NCOs that QMP does not apply to:
a. Those with approved retirements.
b. Those previously retained on active duty by a QMP board, provided there’s no new basis for QMP consideration since the earlier retention determination.
c. E-9s who are within two years of their retention control point.
d. Those who are promotable to the next higher grade, or have been selected to attend the Sergeant Major Course for the purpose of promotion to sergeant major – this is only applicable when the basis for QMP consideration was filed in the Soldier’s Army Military Human Resource Record and was included in the official file seen by the promotion/training selection board.
There are many other details in the MILPER relating to processes of separation, appeals process, removal of unfavorable information from Soldiers’ records, due process and so on.
By David Vergun