Army Up-or-Out standards

| February 11, 2014

The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that the Army has announced it’s newest standards for soldiers to remain in service in regards to their ranks;

Privates will get five years to move up or move out. Specialists and corporals will have an eight-year pull date and three-stripe sergeants will have 14 years.

The move narrows the promotion windows for career-minded soldiers as the Army works to trim 80,000 troops from its ranks by 2018.

The first rank that will allow a soldier to reach the 20-year retirement mark is staff sergeant.

The only enlisted rank that can make the 30-year mark is sergeant major. I remember the last time they did this, the Army notified an E-8 friend of mine with 28 years of service that he needed to retire immediately. He had tears in his eyes as he told me that he didn’t know what he was going to do without the Army. That’s why my advice is to go out on your terms. Make plans to get out when you want to get out and don’t deviate from your plan.

Category: Big Army

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Roh-dog

I had to weight in on this… I Infantryed for 11 years and walked as a Sergeant no class. I absolutely loved the idea of being the tip of the spear and it is by far the most demanding job in an operational unit. The senior Team Leader often is called to take the roll of Squad Leader if he is otherwise busy so it’s not like this guy doesn’t know wtf is up. I ‘grew up’ with Sergeants Major saying that the best times in their careers was spent as a Team Leader. I almost always got great NCO evaluations, could shoot, move and communicate my nuts off. The thing I never wanted to deal with was getting promoted to SSG and have admin (kissing ass) and political (romantically kissing ass) responsibilities. I realized that if I was to stay in, due to reduction in force, I’d have to swallow my pride and do the things I know that don’t help me or the institution. When you attrit those that have love for the job and the pride to do the hard job you are left with careerist ‘yes men’. Why the hell is rank solely the retention metric? That’s my two cents….

Twist

@51, I made it to SFC without having to kiss ass. With the route things are going, I don’t think that will be possible in the future. I do agree, being a Team Leader was the best time of my career. They are where the rubber meets the road.

NHSparky

I read the writing on the wall when I made the CPO board three times and was non-select all three times, because the selection percentage was 5-10 percent, MAX. Boat Sailors of the Year were getting a no-go at Chief. Couple that with a booming economy, and it was an easy choice.

Sadly, the guys getting out now don’t have the luxury of a good economy to fall back on. That’s where I really feel for the folks in now.

nbcguy54

In the late 90’s, during the last purge, I was one of the chosen ones who got to see RCP up close and personal. I made E5 quick, did my job good, got all kinds of neat stuff for the wall and uniform, and good outstandingly inflated NCOERs. But then the points maxed and stayed there forever, and not being a PT stud or having college, stayed promotable (but not promoted) until that fateful day. My own fault for not getting off of my lazy ass and doing more. The issue I had at the time however was the fact that to get the RCP benefits (sorry you can’t stay, so here’s some money to go away)I had to contract with a Reserve or Guard unit. Not good enough to stay active but good enough for the Reserves/NG. It all worked out for me as I was able to transition into a civilian job where I could actually use my military skills (NBC-who would have thunk it) making good money out of the gate and still working for/around military types. But the fact that we were RCPing troops out of Active Duty into the Reserves alway struck me as being hypocritical. I hope that won’t be the case during this round…