Q: What is a relational database?

A: A relational database is a collection of data stored in tables similar to tables you may have seen in an Excel spreadsheet.  The primary difference being that unlike a typical Excel spreadsheet, the data stored in a database is broken up into several different tables that have established relationships.  This makes storing, searching, sorting, and retrieving the data much simpler, much more robost, and much more elegant.

Q: What is a query?

A: A query can be thought of a question you pose to the database.  The query result is the answer to that question. 

Q: There are several different NCO professional development sites on the Internet that offer MOS specific bullets.  What sets ARMYNCO.com apart?

A: Even though my database currently has just over a hundred records, it still provides better results than any other NCO professional development website on the Internet for a number of reasons:

  • The bullets are truly MOS specific.  When you query my database for 19K bullets, you expect to see only 19K bullets in the results.  You won’t find any MOS immaterial bullets such as:

 “o consistently performed duties above his pay grade“

This bullet could literally apply to any MOS in the Army.  If you have to scour through hundreds of these types of MOS immaterial bullets to find what you’re looking for, it really defeats the purpose.  Instead, for example, when you query for 19K on my database, you’ll find bullets that specifically apply to Tankers—period.

  • All of my bullets are completely categorized by type (Character, Presence, Intellect, Leads, Develops, Achieves, and Rater Performance) and by Performance Category (Far Exceeded Standard, Exceeded Standard, Met Standard, and Did Not Meet Standard)—you won’t find this level of bullet detail anywhere else.
  • Every bullet in my database is individually hand-selected, categorized, and entered in the database solely by me.  I am assembling the largest collection of high quality, categorized bullets available anywhere, and I won’t ever stick crap bullets into my database.

Q: Doesn’t selecting and entering each bullet individually take a lot of time?

A: Hell, yeah it does, but that’s the price I’m willing to pay to have the largest collection of high quality NCOER bullets.  There’s an axiom in data entry that says, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.”  You won’t find any trash in my database.

Q: You mentioned that your database is already designed to provide answers to such questions as: "Show me all the Exceeded Standard, Develops Bullets, for a 19K serving as a Platoon Sergeant;" however, this functionality is currently not available simply because I don’t have enough bullets to support such complex queries.  What do you mean by this?

A: I can definitely write the code to send this query to my database; however, in order to get meaningful results all these conditions need to be met:  I need Exceeded Standard Develops Bullets, and they must apply to a 19K, and must also apply to the position of Platoon Sergeant.  With so few bullets currently in my database, this query is likely to return zero records, and this would be quite frustrating to my visitors.  By only initially allowing my visitors to query for a specific MOS, I can guarantee results.  There might not be many, but there will be results. This problem highlights the importance for visitor contributions.  As my database grows, so will its functionality.

Q: Can you add Army Award Achievement Statements or NCOER duty descriptions to your database?

A: I’ve designed my database in such a way that makes future expansion quite trivial, so yes I can.  I am focusing on NCOER bullets first since that is by far my most popular content.  In the future, I foresee all of my content being in the database so that my visitors will be able to query for MOS specific Award Achievement Statements, or MOS specific Duty Descriptions by grade level.

Q: What about all your other bullets?  Are you going to add them too?

A: Yes.

Q: I have a suggestion for a future capability, are you interested?

A: Absolutely, shoot me an email.

Q: I don’t have a lot of bullets to contribute.  How can I help?

A: If you find my website useful, spread the word. The more visitors, I have, the more contributions I will likely receive.