Deployed and pregnant soldiers can receive temporary promotions under expanded policy

| November 25, 2020

Jeff LPH 3 forwarded this article about the change in promotion criteria for deployed or pregnant soldiers.

Soldiers deployed to combat or who are pregnant will be able to temporarily promote to the ranks of sergeant through sergeant major before completing the mandatory professional military education courses under an expanded policy that starts Jan. 1.

The policy applies to active duty and reserve soldiers who cannot complete PME, but who are otherwise fully qualified for promotion, including those deployed on a named operation in a hostile fire area or serving on temporary profile due to pregnancy or postpartum.

Prior to the policy change, deployed soldiers could obtain an exception that allowed them to temporarily skip PME. That same allowance wasn’t available to pregnant soldiers, though, and now it doesn’t require a soldier to request an exception.

Though the policy impacts only a few hundred deployed troops currently, that could change. An enlisted advisory council helped craft the policy with the understanding that if combat operations were to scale back up, the Army would need a more fluid promotion system, according to Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston.

“What if we went back to full scale combat in the future? Does our policy [change] allow us to do those promotions more routinely than what we have right now?” Grinston said in a phone interview Monday. “Those are smaller numbers that we have in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we went back to 100,000 deployed … those numbers for combat promotions would be a lot higher.”

This is obviously a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, if the PME isn’t necessary to do your job in a combat environment, then they should look at whether the PME is needed at all.

Source; Army Times

Category: Army, Army News, Guest Link

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5th/77th FA

More exceptions for participation ribbons…or pay grades in this case. If the education requirement was put in there must of been a reason for it. This was not an issue in my day, but I realize that things have changed. We have way yonder more females serving across the services than 50 years ago. I do remember the crusty old senior NCOs telling junior EM; “If Uncle Sugar wanted you to have a wife, he would have issued you one!” I don’t guess they can tell a junior enlisted female; “If Uncle Sugar wanted you to have a baby, he would have issued you one.”

All of this will probably be a mute point under the Harris administration. If we even have a viable military it will be for domestic enforcement only. And the only ones deployed overseas in the continuous endless wars will be the white boys that need culling out of the population anyway. YMMV

David

Army DID issue me a wife. Met at AIT and been married over 40 years. Oddly, all our best friends from the day never divorced either (although in fairness a few were on their second marriages).

Ret_25X

NCOES in the Army is not rigorous, grade appropriate, relevant, or meaningful.

At every opportunity, big Army wants to reduce the time spent at school, the cost of the school, etc, etc.

I note that the cost of ICAF, War College, Training with Industry, and Doctoral programs is never an issue.

My own experience was that from PLDC through ANCOC was all skill level 1, 1SG course was a beer week, and USASMA was the only NCOES course that was actually about being a leader in the Army, but everything we learned should have been taught to us as SSGs or SFCs.

We used to joke at BNCOC and ANCOC that we had mastered the basic MOS as a private, as well as lawn mowing and floor buffing. Frankly, at ANCOC…a school for E-7s…we spent a good 3 hours a day buffing, mopping, mowing, and trimming. When we weren’t spending 40 minutes standing around waiting for someone–anyone–from the school house to unlock a door or turn the lights back on, that is.

Why not promote then school…the Army isn’t really interested in making the PME relevant and value added.

SFC D

I spent more time sweeping, mopping, buffing, raking and cutting grass, and other details at ANCOC than I ever did as a private. Signal NCOES was run by a bunch of know-it-all clowns that spent their careers hiding in the schoolhouse.

Berliner

I was in my 2nd year with 3ID (Schweinfurt) as a Retention NCO after 6 years on Recruiting duty in Chicago when I came down on the E7 list with a subsequent class date for ANCOC. 2 months before ANCOC at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis they sent me to Kitzingen for PLDC.

No hassles at PLDC, they treated me like an observer. ANCOC at Indy was a breeze. Lodging for us was a contract hotel downtown. We did get to play aggressors for the Finance AIT students field exercise and pummeled them with snowballs.

Claw

PME? Pfffftt!! Bring back Blood Stripes and all will be right with the world./s

Green Thumb

Before we rolled, 5 of the 7 women down in our FSC became pregnant.

And did not deploy.

AW1Ed

Dammit Mason, if you are vying for Board Acronym Abuser, that spot is taken by Hondo. Y’all know undefined acronyms set off my OCD, so here are the doggie ones in order of appearance-

1) PME Professional Military Education
2) AIT Advanced Individual Training
3) ICAF Industrial College of the Armed Forces
4) PLDC Primary Leadership Development Course
5) ANCOC Advanced Noncommissioned Officers’ Course
6) USASMA United States Army Sergeants Major Academy
7)NCOES Non-Commissioned Officer Education System

Yes, there will be a test.

timactual

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I believe AA (Acronyms Anonymous) has a TSP (Twelve Step Program) for folks like Mr. 25X.

SFC D

Some of them are now a “were”. Army has to rename stuff occasionally in order to appear current.

rgr769

Maybe they could call this program “Preggers and Promoted.” Or how about “Knocked up to Non-Com.”

timactual

So pregnant “soldiers” are now not only exempt from deploying or other arduous duty because their condition prevents them from performing such duty, they are also unable to perform professional education. The solution is simple, but not politically correct.