I cannot speak to the type of UCFR system itself because it varies between commands; however, as a finance officer, I can tell you the UCFR is an important report.  As a Commander, you can catch many of your Soldiers pay issues before they get out of hand.  Also, understand that the Commander is responsible for validating the report and r…[Read more]

There was not a CONOP. It was more of an ad hoc type of deal. We had about 15-20 minutes to write our own strengths/weaknesses as well as those of our peers. We discussed what we read for over an hour; however, my unit was a Detachment, so it was a very small group of individuals. More time may be needed for a normal size company.

Award templates for different types of awards are always helpful which include example citations.  Maybe publish an SOP regarding submission timelines, a trend report which lets Commanders/1SGs know what the typical mistakes are so they can key in on catching the errors, etc.  It also helps to know the approving authorities thoughts on awards… w…[Read more]

My Commander did something similar to an anonymous comment box, but he set some parameters.  He had all of the junior officers and NCOs participate; this was not open to the rest of the Soldiers.  We each wrote down strengths/weaknesses of each individual (including ourselves) and placed it in each person’s patrol cap.  Once complete, each pers…[Read more]