TopHatter

Oh man, this is exactly what I needed. Any reason to crack up today is fine by me

__________________
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
~John Quincy Adams

Franco Lolan

Sounds awesome.

Anon

"I had a dormmate that made E-5 in two years by virtue of being a nuclear technician. He had to get out because his back got hurt in a car accident not related to naval activities."

Our Bn Clerk made E-5 in 22 months. One seriously cheese eating dude, but he was also highly competent, and had one of those personalities whereby everyone loved him, the Bn CO and SM most of all.

Sheks Bro making E-8 in 11 years is unheard of in the Army...or at least it was in my day. 11 years in most guys are E-6s.

Shek

He's a squid, but I know it was on the faster side. The other thing is that the Navy promotes you when you make the list, unlike the Army where you can wait for some time until your sequence number comes up and you are actually promoted (I know the E7 list after ODS took some 2-3 years to exhaust due to the RIFs). I had a PSG while I was in command that made E7 at 11 years, I think. Also, while I was in Italy, I had a 1SG who had made E8 at around 14 or 15 years in. He had been a 1SG for 5 years already (1-2 of them as an E-7) when I met him and is now a CSM. He was an amazing NCO - a 13B that had earned an EIB and Ranger tab as an E-5 cannon cocker at Bragg. Since he was FA, he couldn't wear the EIB on his uniform, so he sewed it on the underside of his pocket flap and would expose it whenever an infantryman would start talking shiznit.

Anon

LOL....great story sir.

Shek

I was the mortar PL and he was the FA Firing Battery 1SG. Since I piggybacked on a lot of their FTXs (they did the land/ammo coordinations, always had a MKT with kick a$$ rations for their FTXs, and between the CO, XO, and 1SG, I had a bunch of indirect fire experience to tap into). Since I had issues with my PSG and my own HHC 1SG wasn't too hot, this 1SG and CDR took my under their wings and helped coach me through the situation. Between that and getting a new PSG, I was able to bring the platoon to a whole new level. It was also a good thing when I became the S1 - this 1SG was moved over to HHC (wow! a FA 1SG in charge of an infantry HHC - but, he had the experience and leadership, so it wasn't an issue) I no longer had to hound HHC for turning in NCOERs on time, and in fact, HHC became the first company in the BN to always have their stuff in early.

Bluesman

Speaking of eval suspenses:

I had a wing commander at Fort Meade that used to like to say this at Commander's Call: "Busted suspenses are a SIN, and I am the High Priest of Admin. Go forth and sin no more, my people."

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Bluesman

Oh, and his other pet rock was lost leave, or when people had to hurry up and use it up at the end of the Fiscal Year or lose some days.

On 1 October, he would make the squadron commanders come to his office one at a time, formally report, and stand at attention while they explained each and every day of lost leave from their units.

You don't want to be in that position more than once, so unit commanders started making sure their people did NOT bust a 50-60 day leave balance.

Anon

" (wow! a FA 1SG in charge of an infantry HHC - but, he had the experience and leadership, so it wasn't an issue)"

Don't feel bad, my HHC CO was a stinkin' Armor officer.

Ah yes, i can still see the look in his eyes that i caused when saluting him and sounding off with, "Clank, Clank, Kill a tank!"

Hehehehe.

Blademaster

Guys, please update me on the Abbrev. I don't know the HHC or the army culture. I feel so left out.

Shek

FA - Field Artillery
HHC - Headquarters and Headquarters Company
CO - Commanding Officer
FTX - Field Training Exercise

Let me know if there's any other alphabet soup that flew over your head.

sniperdude411

I feel for ya, bro.

sniperdude411

Here's some more:

1. What exactly is a Non-Commisioned Officer? Field-grade Officer?
2. How and how fast could you get to an 0-5?
3. If you can answer this, please: Hwo far can you get up in the ranks if you're in the EOD (89D)?

Again, thanks so much for being so open. You're ten times more informative than any recruiter that I've talked to.

Shek

A NCO is a leader and has power vested in him/her through the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). A field grade officer is an officer in the rank of O-4 to O-6.

LTC Kurilla, commander of 1-24 IN made O-5 in 15 years, I believe, and he was double below the zone (got promoted to MAJ and LTC ahead of his commissioning year groups), so that would make the average 17 years.

You should be able to make it to E-9. Like many MOS, at E-9, your MOS actually changes and you would be a SGM or CSM for any Ordnance Battalion. I am not positive on the MOS change since I didn't have any EOD in my battalion when I was the BN S-1, but I know that you aren't limited to a lesser rank. Now, as a smaller branch that is competitive to get into, it's probably harder to make E-8 and E-9. However, E-7 is a respectable rank to retire at, and if you make E-8 or E-9, then you were a supertroop (99% of the time).

Shek

USA Today
May 13, 2005
Pg. 1

Army Offers 1 1/4 Year Hitch

Recruit shortfall produces shortest enlistment ever

By Dave Moniz, USA Today

WASHINGTON — The Army, faced with a severe and growing shortage of recruits, began offering 15-month active-duty enlistments nationwide Thursday, the shortest tours ever.

The typical enlistment lasts three or four years; the previous shortest enlistment was two years.

Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the head of the Army Recruiting Command, said 2006 could be even worse than this year, a continuation of “the toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army.”

Recruits in the new 15-month program could serve in 59 of the more than 150 jobs in the Army, including the combat infantry, and then serve two years in the Reserve or National Guard.

They would finish their eight-year military obligation in the Guard or Reserve, volunteer programs such as AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps, or the Individual Ready Reserve, a pool of former active-duty troops who can still be called to duty but aren't affiliated with any military unit.

David Segal, a military personnel expert at the University of Maryland, said the 15-month enlistments are no panacea. Fifteen months, Segal said, is often not enough time to learn complex tasks in a high-tech Army.

Jim Martin, a retired Army officer who teaches military culture at Bryn Mawr College, said parents and teachers “see the Army as a real risk, a real danger” because of the war in Iraq. That, more than the length of service, is the major obstacle to recruiting.

Rochelle projected the service will have only half the number of recruits ready for 2006 than it did this year, when it had an unusually low number of recruits signed up in advance. Under the Army's delayed entry program, recruits can sign up one year and report for service a year later.

In 2006, the Army's stockpile of recruits is projected to drop from 18%, or 14,400 soldiers, of the recruiting target of 80,000 to just under 10%, or slightly less than 8,000, Rochelle said.

The Army usually aims at beginning a new recruiting year with 25%-35% of its goal signed up in advance.

That cushion of advance recruits often determines whether the Army meets or misses its goal.

It's “not a bright picture,” Rochelle said during a conference call.

More than halfway through its fiscal year, the Army has not been able to make a noticeable dent in the public's reluctance to enlist its sons and daughters. That's despite record-high bonuses paid to recruits, a new advertising campaign that targets parents and a dramatic increase in the number of recruiters throughout the nation.

Segal said he doesn't think the Army will make its goals this year or next. The Marine Corps is struggling.

But the Air Force and Navy, the two services not heavily involved in ground combat in Afghanistan or Iraq, should meet their goals this year, Segal said.

Rochelle said he believes the Army can meet its recruiting goal for 2005, although recruiters are working 80-hour weeks to meet their monthly quotas.

In response to cases in which recruiters offered to provide fake high school diplomas and enlist recruits with disqualifying medical conditions, the Army will stop recruiting for one day later this month to provide ethics training.

So far this fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, the Army has reported 480 such allegations; 91 have been ruled valid. Eight recruiters have been relieved from duty, and 98 have been admonished.