How to Fill Out the NCOER Support Form: Bullets, Blocks, and EES

To fill out the NCOER support form, select the DA Form 2166-9 version that matches the rated soldier’s rank, complete the administrative and rating chain data in Parts I and II, write a clear duty description in Part III, and draft specific, measurable, past-tense bullets in each of the seven blocks of Part IV. You draft it at the start of the rating period, update it during quarterly counseling, and finalize it through the Evaluation Entry System (EES) before your rater writes the actual NCOER. Promotion boards read these bullets closely, so the work you put in here shapes the report your rater eventually files.

Pick the Right Form Version First

The DA Form 2166-9 series has three versions, and the rated soldier’s rank decides which one you use.

DA Form 2166-9-1A (Direct Level) for sergeants (SGT/E-5).
DA Form 2166-9-2 (Organizational Level) for staff sergeants through first sergeants and master sergeants (SSG through 1SG/MSG).
DA Form 2166-9-3 (Strategic Level) for sergeants major and command sergeants major (SGM/CSM).

EES generates the correct version automatically once you enter the soldier’s rank and date of rank. Get either field wrong and the system builds the wrong form, and you cannot change it without stripping all signatures and the rater lock first.¹

Part I: Administrative Data

Part I is plain data entry, but small errors here cause the biggest downstream problems. Incorrect DoD ID numbers or Social Security Numbers account for roughly 99 percent of “unable to view” errors in EES.¹ Check every field against official personnel records before you move on.

The fields to complete:

Name: last name, first name, middle initial, exactly as it appears in official records.
SSN or DoD ID Number: either identifier is accepted.
Rank and Date of Rank: these two fields determine which form version EES generates.
PMOSC: your Primary Military Occupational Specialty Code.
Unit, Organization, Station, ZIP Code or APO, and Major Command.
UIC: your Unit Identification Code.
Official military email address.
SSD and NCOES requirement for the next grade.
MEL and current SSD level.

Part II: Rating Chain and Counseling Dates

Part II identifies the rater, senior rater, and (when applicable) a supplementary reviewer. For each official you enter name, DoD ID or SSN, rank, branch or PMOSC, organization, duty assignment, email, and counseling dates.

The rated NCO’s block captures your initials along with the dates of initial and later counseling sessions. Blank counseling dates force the senior rater to explain the missing counseling in Part V of the finished NCOER.¹ Fill them in as counseling happens; don’t leave them for the end.

Part III: The Duty Description

The duty description tells the reader what the job actually involves. Five blocks, and the context they set makes every bullet that follows land harder or softer.

Block a, Principal Duty Title: matches your assignment orders.
Block b, Duty MOSC: at least five characters, no more than nine. If you fill an officer position, enter the enlisted MOSC that best matches it.²
Block c, Daily Duties and Scope: your most important routine duties, written as present-tense phrases starting with action words, separated by semicolons, ending in a period.
Block d, Areas of Special Emphasis: tasks or priorities that required top attention during the rating period, such as unit readiness processing or master resiliency training. Semicolons between items.
Block e, Appointed Duties: duties assigned outside your normal job description. Same format.

Unless your duties changed during the rating period, the duty description on the final NCOER should match what you wrote on the support form.² Get it right the first time.

Bullet Format Rules

Learn these before you write a single bullet. Violations get reports returned.

Length: no bullet may exceed two lines. One line is preferred. Do not put more than one bullet on a single line.¹
Starting word: an action verb (led, managed, coordinated) or a possessive pronoun (his, her). Personal pronouns (he, she) are also allowed.
Tense: past tense when describing what happened during the rating period.
Marker: each bullet starts with a lowercase “o” and a space. The word after the “o” is lowercase unless it is a proper noun.
Spacing: double-space between bullets.
One example per bullet, and each accomplishment appears only once across all blocks. Pick the block it best supports and put it there.
Minimum: at least one bullet in every block of Part IV (blocks c through i), whatever the box-check rating is.

You also cannot use board language or box-check references in the narrative. Phrases like “most qualified NCO,” “top 1 percent,” or “if my profile allowed, I would rate this NCO higher” are prohibited and will cause a return.¹

Writing Bullets for Each Block

Part IV organizes performance into three attributes (Character, Presence, Intellect) and three competencies (Leads, Develops, Achieves). Each block gets its own bullets, and putting evidence in the right block matters.

Character

The Character block carries a mandatory requirement: the rater must comment on how you promoted a climate of dignity and respect and on your adherence to SHARP.¹ Bullets otherwise address Army Values, empathy, discipline, and ethical behavior. Quantify where you can: hours of ethics training completed, soldiers led through a SHARP stand-down, inspections passed with a zero-incident command climate.

Presence

Presence covers military and professional bearing, fitness, confidence, and resilience. The support form has fields for APFT or ACFT goals (push-ups, sit-ups, run times) and height and weight standards. Fitness scores are the easiest quantifiable data you have. Use them: an ACFT score that moved from 480 to 530 belongs here.

Intellect

Intellect covers mental agility, sound judgment, and professional expertise. Bullets about completing civilian education, earning certifications, or applying creative problem-solving to an operational challenge go here.

Leads

Leads is about influencing people and communicating. Bullets describe how you directed your team during a field exercise, resolved a conflict between subordinates, or stepped up during a leadership gap. Focus on outcomes you shaped through other people.

Develops

Develops is where mentorship lives: coaching a soldier through a promotion board, running a study group that improved MOS qualification rates, or building a training program that raised section proficiency. Promotion boards look at this block closely because it shows whether you invest in the force beyond yourself.

Achieves

Achieves is task completion and mission results. Dollar amounts, percentages, and hard outcomes hit hardest here. An NCO who maintained 100 percent accountability of $2.3 million in equipment with zero losses, or who reduced maintenance backlog by 30 percent over six months, puts that in Achieves.

Making Bullets Specific and Measurable

“Performed duties in an outstanding manner” tells a board nothing. “Reduced equipment downtime by 22 percent across a fleet of 14 vehicles over a six-month period” tells them exactly what you did and how well.

Ways to quantify performance even in roles that feel hard to measure:

Peer comparison: “ranked 3rd of 20 recruiters in the battalion” or “selected over five more senior NCOs for a leadership position.”
Percentage improvement: “improved supply reconciliation of overdue documents by 66 percent” or “raised processing rate from 65 percent to 94 percent.”
Volume and dollar value: “maintained 100 percent accountability of over $1 million in equipment” or “coordinated the fielding of 240 computers across three sites.”
Time-bound results: “completed the battalion’s monthly Unit Status Report for six consecutive months with zero defects.”
Score improvement: “raised section APFT average from 224 to 246.”

For “Far Exceeded Standard” and “Exceeded Standard” ratings, substantive comments are required. You cannot check a high box and leave a thin bullet; the bullet has to describe performance above the ordinary with measurable results.¹ “Did Not Meet Standard” also requires mandatory comments supporting the negative rating.

Updating the Form Through Counseling

The support form isn’t a one-time document. It anchors counseling sessions that run through the rating period, and those sessions should produce updates to the form.

Initial counseling within 30 days of the start of the rating period: you and your rater define performance goals, review the duty description, and set expectations for each attribute and competency block.
Quarterly counseling: the rater counsels you at least once per quarter afterward, reviewing progress and updating the support form.
Senior rater counseling: the senior rater should counsel you at least twice during the rating period.³

By the end of the rating period the support form should carry your initials, your rater’s, and your senior rater’s, with dates for every counseling session.

Submitting Through EES

All support forms and evaluations route through the Evaluation Entry System. Access requires a valid Common Access Card and no separate access request.¹

Signing runs in a fixed order. The rater verifies rank, date of rank, and the overall performance rating, then clicks “Rater Lock” followed by “Click Here to Sign.” The senior rater signs next. You then review and sign. If a supplementary reviewer is required under AR 623-3, that person signs last. Once all signatures are in place the senior rater submits the evaluation to HQDA.¹

One timing detail: the rater lock cannot be applied more than 14 days before the “THRU” date on the evaluation. Final signing happens in the last two weeks of the rating period, so make sure everyone in the chain is available then.

Errors That Get Reports Returned

Reports that reach HQDA with problems get returned to the senior rater for correction, but only while the evaluation is still in “E” (editable) status. Once filed in iPERMS, it can’t be returned for correction through normal channels.¹ Catch errors before submission.

The most common problems:

Wrong DoD ID or SSN, which causes 99 percent of access errors. If someone in the rating chain cannot see the form, check identification numbers first.
Signatures removed out of order. Corrections after signing begins require removing signatures in reverse: supplementary reviewer, rated soldier, senior rater, rater. Any other sequence locks people out.
Prohibited narrative language. Any box-check or board reference triggers a return.
Missing counseling dates, which force the senior rater to explain the absence.
Empty bullet blocks. Every block in Part IV, c through i, needs at least one bullet.
Wrong rank or date of rank, which controls the form version EES creates. Fixing them after signatures are applied means removing all signatures and the rater lock.

1
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Evaluation Entry System (EES) User’s Guide
2
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Module 3 – NCOER Support Form and Grade Plate NCOERs
3
United States Army Human Resources Command. DA Form 2166-9 Series Module 3 NCOER Support Form and Grade Plate NCOERs