Trying to get my form_alter function to be more specific
The hook for specific form ID's is hook_form_FORM_ID_alter() (at the moment you're using something more like hook_FORM_ID_form_alter()). You should just need to change the name of the function to:

function MYTHEME_form_support_ticket_node_form_alter(&amp;$form, &amp;$form_state, $form_id) {
  // ...
}


and clear the caches.