18 years and still a E6?

Question

my husband is a mechanic and been in the militiary for 18 years, he is still SSG. we recently got married and i dont know that much about the military life but heard that its not quite "usual" to not have been promoted after serving that long. he said he had alwyas done a great job and loves his work, always have been appreciated by everyone for working so hard and never got in any trouble or anything. now i am not about to dig in his past to see if he ever did anything wrong, but i wonder what could be the reasons of him not being promoted if he did everything right for 18 years?

i said i wont dig in his past!! i am asking for an opinion what could possibly cause this?

and for the rude answers, my husband held me back from getting involved in teh military life, never talked to me about it and had a very shady lifestyle, i am still supporting him, so you guys are very wrong as far as nasty answers.

i cant answer a lot of questions because he wont answer to me on things, i have all his records, paperwork at home, but dont want to look in it, i dont wanna go dig in it as i mentioned already. he is in the army, no college, what else he did i really dont know about as he doesnt give me much insight and his word cant be trusted.

Answer 1

Alot of the times it is what he hasnt done. Does he have a degree? Does he have his ERB updated to a "T"? There are things he needs to look at and if he has been in 18 years, he knows what & where he needs to go to get it fixed.

SSG Schramm
US Army 15 years
OIF 2003

Answer 2

e may have done nothing wrong. I have had more than a few friends retire as an E-6 in the Air Force, and only one of them did something that would make them unpromotable. If you just don't test well, getting to E-7 can be not an easy task, at least it's that way in the Air Force.

Had I stayed in, I would most likely have been promoted to E-6 maybe 4 years ago, and have stayed that way, and I would have been in for 17 years.

There is another thing. Maybe he doesn't want to be an E-7. In the career field I was in, an E-7 would have made me an assistant shop chief, or in most cases a shop chief. I wasn't very happy as an E-5 with the paperwork I was having to do, and I am quite certain that the E-6 level would have REALLY annoyed me. Some people, like myself, like working. Had I made E-6, I would have worked on the jets less and less, and E-7, forget it. I would NEVER see a flight line.

Maybe E-6 is as high in rank as he can go and still enjoy what he's doing.

Answer 3

First of all, E-6 is not a mean rank. It is one of the backbone ranks in the army. The jump from E-6 to E-7 is one of the hardest promotions there is.

There are many more promotable E-5's and E-6's than there are billets at the E-7 level.

A great deal depends on one's MOS. Some billets turn over more often than others because they entail getting shot at. One of the reasons why West Point Grads seek to branch infantry is because promotions come faster in that branch.

Of course, so do the real estate deals and the special retirement plans. (Remember, West Point selects for leadership potential, not necessarily the sharpest pencils in the box.)

"never got in any trouble or anything"

Wait a minute. He's a noncom. He's been in 18 years. Is his halo golden, silver or bronze? Seriously, unless you were to see his personnel jacket, you have no idea what's in there. But still, being in 18 years and holding the rank of E6 is not proof that he's done anything wrong. He just might not be judged ready yet to climb to the seriously senior rank of Sergeant First Class. There might be so little turnover in his MOS that TIS is more like 20 years.

The average time in service for selectees to E-7 is 13.6 years. That includes the infantry, which has a maddening tendency to burn up Platoon Sergeants and Platoon Leaders both. And it includes the rear echelons blokes, among whom E-6 is nothing to sneeze at, 'cos the higher-ups don't get killed or crippled quite as frequently.

The really challenging part of the jump to E-7 is that the soldier's unit has no input into the process beyond how it maintains the soldier's personnel records. The selections are made by a central board, based SOLELY on the content of the soldier's promotion records. The soldiers CAN write to the board to draw attention to something special, but are counseled against doing so unless there is something really really important that is not in the promotion records or present so subtly and tangentially that the board, which has to look at hundreds of files in each MOS, will miss it.

Answer 4

Well apparently your husband is NOT a butt-kisser... good on em', lol!

First off, promotions can only happen if there's a slot open for an E7, second: he may have great scores but there could be a few folks ahead of him on the promotion list... and lastly... this happens quite a bit in all branches of the military both active and reserve. Retiring as an E6 happens to quite a few folks so it's nothing to be "embarrassed" about. My B.I.L. is in the Coast Guard Reserves and has almost 30 years in when he finally got promoted to E7. My sister did 20 years in the Navy and only made E6.

The bad thing is that your hubby may have to leave service at 20 years (assuming he's active).

Answer 5

im an AF spouse, but i have family in the army.....my husband is a 10 year E5 in the AF due to poor test taking skills. in the army (from what ive been told) promotions depend on alot of factors ........openings for that rank in your MOS being first of all.....then points and those points come from alot of things, reviews from your superiors (and alot of times to get a good review involves more than showing up and doing your job, you have to go above and beyond both on and off duty) also things like combat ribbons (which is sorta messed up because some MOS's never see combat so dont get the opportunity to get the same ones as the guys who do) there are so many factors that could hold someone back regardless of the branch they are in its really hard to say rather or not he has done something wrong or not........however if you are doubtful as to why he isnt telling you or why he is keeping you seperated from the military life then marrying him probably wasnt a very good idea. Ive known a few wives whose husbands kept them out of the loop on military stuff....and these women either ended up divorcing their husbands, or seriously losing it when their husband got deployed because they didnt know who to turn to.

Answer 6

Has he taken all the required BNOC, ANOC, PLDC, and such courses?

Any college?

Ever refused any schooling?

Attemepted to apply for any extra schooling? IE. Air Assault, Ranger, AirBorne, and the like???

Above average at PT?

Ever been in trouble? 17 years and only a Staff Seargent isn't doing well. I knew guys who only had 10 years in and were SSG, and on the list for MSgt already.

Volunteer for local community assistance programs?

Just doing your job and floating thru doesn't get you promoted. Being hungry for more knowledge gets you promoted quicker as an enlisted person.

Lastly, there may not have been open slots in his field for the promotion. These are all things that need to be considered, and looked into.

My assumptions are, he appears to have floated thru his job, and never really drove hard to move ahead.

As most GOOD NCO's by the time they hit 20 years are tapping SMG if not already been in that rank for a year or so...After that, it's the waiting game for CSMG... Tell him to check his promotion status, see if there is even a slot in his selected field....

Answer 7

Promotion is based an points, and points come from many sources. Everything from the ribbons on your class As, where you have been stationed/deployed, time in rank, to test scores and education makes a difference.
Little strategy on testing: The test is divided into two sections, one is your MOS/AFFC (job) the other half is general military. By studying hard on the half you score low in, at best, you will improve your overall score by 10 points. By studying hard on the portion you do well on, you can improve your overall score by sometimes as much as 40 points. So pay attention to how you divide up your study time.

For the poster above E-6 in the Air Force is "T/SGT" not SSG

Answer 8

I'm assuming he's in the AF. This branch is the hardest to get good promotions in. Problem is that it all comes down to how well you can take two tests in a silent room over three hours. One on your job knowledge and one on basic air force stuff, history, structure, ... that crap.

Some jobs tests are stupid because they aren't really applicable to the job you are doing.

Case in point. I was a computer programmer. I never programmed anything. I tested programs, set up personal computers and trained people how to use them and the programs they had, worked on LANs and finally became a full time trainer on programming but never did the job.

It took me 10 years to get from E-5 to E-6 because the test was 40% Cobol, 30% fortran, 10% assembler and the rest was on general programming stuff. Languages I never used. I always felt the testing method was so unfair.

Nothing wrong with being an E-6. Believe me, he is beating himself up over it. And you are kind for not prying into it.

Answer 9

I have seen hundreds of people retire at either E4 or E5. Your rank does not increase because of y our time in the service, it increases more as a result of how many of higher rank the service needs. There are MOSs that are non-critical where rank increases are very slow.

I would not worry about it. If he is a very good mechanic, he will have no problem earning a lot in the post service world and still retain his retirement benefits.

When my son went to work for the first time, I suggested that he look into several fields for an occupation:

food
toilet paper
auto parts/mechanic

Regardless of how broke someone is, they willneed food. Food will create a need for toilet paper, and if even if they don't have a job, they will have to keep their car (or other's cars) running in order to get to places to apply.

If the man enjoys what he is doing, let him be. If you have not "dug in his past" up to now, don't do it now or you will be out of the picture for sure.

Answer 10

If he is in the Reserves or National Guard, it's not that unusual. There are guys that have over twenty that are only E5's. The one's that aren't really the "go getters". Active duty, he's definately not fast tracking. He should be around E-8, or at least a E-7 looking for his E-8. It could be a number of things: shady record, not passing PT test, not passing ANOC (school for E-7), his MOS (his job) is tough to get promoted, missing files among many other things.