How to Fill Out and Submit DA Form 2166-9-2: NCO Evaluation Report

DA Form 2166-9-2 is the Army’s organizational-level NCO Evaluation Report for Staff Sergeants, Sergeants First Class, Master Sergeants, and First Sergeants, and it is completed entirely inside the Evaluation Entry System at evaluations.hrc.army.mil. To finish and submit one correctly, you need the right report type selected, a valid rating chain, accurate administrative and duty data, rater and senior rater assessments that respect the senior rater profile cap, current ACFT and height/weight entries, and signatures applied in sequence before the senior rater forwards the report to Headquarters, Department of the Army.

Confirm the Form Matches the Rank

Use the 2166-9-2 only for Staff Sergeant through Master Sergeant and First Sergeant. Sergeants get the 2166-9-1. Sergeants Major and Command Sergeants Major get the 2166-9-3. Starting the wrong grade-plate form is one of the fastest ways to have an evaluation kicked back before anyone reads a word of it.¹

Pick the Right Report Type Before You Open EES

AR 623-3 defines several NCOER types, each with its own event code. EES prompts for the code at the start, and picking the wrong one forces a restart.

Annual (Code 02): required after one calendar year of rated duty following the previous evaluation’s “thru” date.
Extended Annual (Code 10): used when nonrated periods push the report to cover 365 rated days rather than 365 calendar days.
Change of Duty (Code 04): required when the rated NCO moves to a different principal duty under the same rater or separates from service.
Senior Rater Option (Code 08): may be rendered when the senior rater changes, and becomes mandatory when an evaluation would otherwise be due within 60 calendar days of the change.
Complete the Record (Code 09): submitted before an HQDA selection board for promotion, school, or CSM selection, provided the soldier has served at least 90 rated days under the same rater.
Relief for Cause: required whenever an NCO is formally relieved from duties for cause.

Identify the type before you start so the rest of the entries line up with the correct code.²

Verify the Rating Chain and Minimum Time in Position

Every NCOER needs at least a rater and a senior rater. The rater is the direct supervisor. The senior rater sits one level above and provides the assessment that carries the most weight with promotion boards.

For an Active Component rater to render a valid evaluation, the rated NCO must have served under that rater for at least 90 calendar days. The senior rater must have been designated for at least 60 days. Reserve and National Guard soldiers face longer minimums: 120 days for the rater and 90 days for the senior rater. If those thresholds are not met, the rating official cannot assess the soldier, and the report may need to be rendered as unrated for that portion of the chain.³

When You Need a Supplementary Reviewer

A supplementary reviewer is required in three situations: when the senior rater holds a rank of Second Lieutenant through First Lieutenant, Warrant Officer through Chief Warrant Officer 2, or Sergeant First Class through First Sergeant/Master Sergeant; when no uniformed Army rating official at Captain or above, Chief Warrant Officer 3 or above, or Command Sergeant Major/Sergeant Major exists in the chain; and for every relief-for-cause evaluation. The supplementary reviewer must outrank the senior rater and hold one of those higher grades.³

Lock In the Support Form and Counseling Record First

The evaluation you type into EES should be the last step, not the first. At the start of the rating period, the rated NCO fills in goals and expectations on the NCOER Support Form. The rater conducts an initial counseling session using that form as the framework, then quarterly counseling for the remainder of the rating period. The senior rater is expected to counsel the rated NCO at least twice during the rating period.⁴

Counseling dates land on the final NCOER, and signing the evaluation confirms those dates are accurate. If you sign an evaluation reflecting counseling that never happened, you have agreed on the record that the process was followed, and a later appeal becomes much harder to sustain. Fix it before you sign.

Enter Administrative Data in EES

EES at evaluations.hrc.army.mil is the only authorized platform for creating, routing, and submitting NCOERs. Any user with a valid Common Access Card can log in; there is no separate access request or unit authorization.⁵

Parts I and II capture the administrative foundation: the rated NCO’s full legal name, Social Security Number, rank, Date of Rank, Unit Identification Code, and the period covered. EES pulls much of this from the Defense Manpower Data Center, so fields like email default from existing records. You can correct errors manually, but the source data drives the initial entries.⁵

Write Part III: The Duty Description

Part III requires the Principal Duty Title and the Duty MOS Code, followed by a summary of daily responsibilities and the scope of the role. Because this is an organizational-level NCOER, the duty description should read like organizational work: managing processes, implementing policy, allocating resources across subordinate elements. A weak duty description undersells the NCO to a promotion board that has no other window into what the job looked like.

Complete Part IV: The Rater’s Assessment

Part IV evaluates performance across the six ADP 6-22 attributes and competencies: Character, Presence, Intellect, Leads, Develops, and Achieves.⁶ For each one, the rater selects either “Met Standard” or “Did Not Meet Standard” and writes bullet comments supporting the rating. Bullets should cite specific actions, results, and impacts from the rating period rather than generic praise.

After the individual attributes, the rater assigns an overall performance rating on a four-tier scale: Far Exceeded Standard, Exceeded Standard, Met Standard, or Did Not Meet Standard. The rater’s overall assessment is unconstrained. There is no cap on how many soldiers a rater can place in any category.⁴

Complete the Senior Rater’s Assessment and Watch the Profile

The senior rater’s narrative addresses long-term potential: where the NCO should serve next, what level of responsibility they are ready for, and what schools or broadening assignments would strengthen their career. That narrative has to track logically with the rater’s bullet comments. Contradictions raise red flags during board review.

For the overall potential block, the senior rater selects one of four categories:

Most Qualified: strong potential for early promotion, ahead of peers.
Highly Qualified: strong potential for promotion with peers. Intended as the standard rating for solid performers.
Qualified: demonstrates potential at the next level; promote if able.
Not Qualified: does not demonstrate potential for promotion; separation recommended.

The senior rater can place no more than 24 percent of the NCOs in their profile into “Most Qualified.” EES tracks this automatically, and if the profile does not support another “Most Qualified” selection, the system grays out the option and displays a warning.⁴⁷

Enter ACFT and Height/Weight Data Correctly

Every NCOER must include the rated NCO’s record ACFT status and current height and weight measurements. The rater enters the ACFT status and date in the comment section linked to Part IV, block a, along with whether the soldier is within height and weight standards per AR 600-9.⁸

If the soldier failed the ACFT during the rating period, the entry must follow a specific format: “ACFT: FAIL YYYYMMDD,” using the date the failure occurred. A failure also requires the rater to write a narrative explanation addressing the circumstances, which may include reasons for the failure and any progress toward meeting standards. Diagnostic ACFT results cannot be entered, and numerical scores are not used in place of the required pass/fail status and date.⁸

Know When the Report Becomes Referred

Negative comments in the narrative, including comments tied to an ACFT failure, turn the evaluation into a referred report. In EES, the rater triggers referral by selecting “Yes” to the question asking whether negative comments appear in the narrative.⁸

Referral gives the rated NCO a chance to see the completed evaluation and respond before it is forwarded to HQDA. The senior rater refers the signed report to the soldier, who can acknowledge it and choose whether to submit written comments. Those comments join the evaluation record, but they are not an appeal and not a request for a Commander’s Inquiry, which are separate processes. If the soldier does not respond within the suspense period, the senior rater annotates that on the report and forwards it.⁹

Sign in Sequence and Submit

Once every assessment is finalized, the form moves through a fixed signature sequence in EES. The rated NCO signs first, confirming the accuracy of administrative data in Part I, the rating chain and counseling dates in Part II, the duty description in Part III, and the ACFT and height/weight data in Part IV.¹ The rater and senior rater then apply their digital signatures to certify the performance ratings.

After the final signature, the senior rater or a delegate submits the evaluation through EES to Headquarters, Department of the Army. The system runs automated compliance checks, and the report also undergoes manual review. Submit within 90 days of the “thru” date. EES flags overdue reports and gives the unit full visibility into late submissions.⁵

Track the report’s status in EES to confirm acceptance. A successful submission uploads the evaluation to the soldier’s Army Military Human Resource Record, where it becomes a permanent part of the professional file and is visible to future promotion and selection boards. If errors surface during review, the report is returned to the rating chain for correction and resubmission.

If You Need to Appeal Later

A soldier who believes the evaluation is inaccurate, unjust, or was not prepared in accordance with the regulation in effect at the time can file an appeal within three years of the report’s completion date. Administrative appeals correcting factual data errors, rather than challenging the substance of the ratings, are accepted regardless of how much time has passed.¹⁰

The burden falls on the soldier. The accepted evaluation is presumed correct until the appellant proves otherwise with clear and convincing evidence. A personal statement of disagreement is not enough on its own. The strongest evidence comes from third parties who observed performance from the same vantage point as the rating officials, or from documented results that contradict the evaluation’s conclusions. Building that evidentiary case during or immediately after the rating period, while witnesses remember details and documents are accessible, is far more effective than reconstructing events years later.¹⁰

1
Louisiana National Guard. DA Form 2166-9-2 NCO Evaluation Report
2
Military Criminal Defense Attorneys. Army Regulation 623-3 – Evaluation Reporting System
3
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Policy Updates – NCOER Rating Chain Requirements
4
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. DA Form 2166-9 Series
5
US Army Human Resources Command. Evaluation Entry System Users Guide
6
Department of the Army. DA Form 2166-9-2 NCO Evaluation Report
7
The United States Army. With New Report, Senior Raters May Identify Just 24 Percent Most Qualified
8
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Army Combat Fitness Test on Evaluations Reports
9
Department of the Army. Army Regulation 623-3 – Evaluation Reporting System
10
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Guide for Preparation of Officer and NCO Evaluation Report Appeals