Same amount of time as it takes going from PVT. Get in the habit of saying "Sergeant" instead of E-5. An E-5 is just someone there to collect a paycheck. A Sergeant serves his/her Soldiers by training and mentoring them.
It's competitive. Department of the Army decides they need 500 new Sergeants in MOS 123. Every Soldier has "promotion points" which are determined by physical fitness, marksmanship, your commander's evaluation, awards and decorations, military education, civilian education, and a promotion board review. You have to have a certain amount of time in the military (Time in Service/TIS), as well as time as a Specialist/Corporal (Time in Grade/TIG) before going to the board, and a certain amount of TIG/TIS before you're eligible for promotion. If you meet the TIG/TIS requirements, complete the Warrior Leader Course (3 weeks) and have passed a promotion board, you go on a list. DA will take the top 500 Soldiers in promotion points on that list and promote them to fill those 500 slots. This is done every month for Sergeant and Staff Sergeant. The lowest score of the Soldiers promoted is called the "cutoff score". So if you hear that the 42A cutoff score is 650, that means that if you're promotable (TIG/TIS etc) and had a higher score than that, you're promoted.
Primary Zone TIS/TIG requirements:
Sergeant: 8 months as SPC/CPL, 3 years TIS
Staff Sergeant: 10 months as SGT, 7 years TIS
If you're an "exceptional performer", your commander can put you in the "secondary zone", which allows you to promote earlier (but usually requires more promotion points).
Secondary Zone TIS/TIG requirements:
Sergeant: 4 months as SPC/CPL, 18 months TIS
Staff Sergeant: 5 months as SGT, 4 years TIS
If you finish your bachelor's before enlisting, you'll be Specialist automatically. Otherwise, you need 6 months TIG and 2 years TIS to get it (3 months TIG, 18 months TIS for meritorious promotion). Might as well finish your degree first, the difference is about $5,000 in the long run. You'll also potentially get SGT faster if you're in the secondary zone (within 18 months...otherwise you won't have it for at least 2 1/2 years).
Yes, it is harder to advance with a "staff job". Fastest promotions are Infantry, by far. The cutoff score for 42A is almost always 798. Your degree's credits will probably be worth 180 points (1 semester-credit = 1.5 points), plus 10 points for completing the degree itself, for a total of 190 points, HOWEVER you can only get 100 points for civilian education, so the extra credits won't matter. Your commander's evaluation is worth 1-30 points in each category: Competence, Military Bearing, Leadership, Training, Responsibility/Accountability, for a total of 150. Promotion board points are 1-25 in each: Personal Appearance/Bearing/Self-Confidence, Oral Expression/Conversational Skills, Knowledge of World Affairs, Awareness of Military Programs, Knowledge of Basic Soldiering, Soldier's Attitude, for a total of 150 points.
Another very important thing is military correspondence courses, which are fairly easy online exams for basic things (first aid, oral communication, writing, and job-related stuff). These are worth points, too. Get them. You also learn some important stuff.
Something you may not be aware of, and I don't know if you're eligible (age, criminal record, etc), but you have enough credits for Officer Candidate's School. You'll do BCT (~11 weeks), OCS (~14 weeks), Basic Officer Leader Course II (~7 weeks), and your field's Officer Basic Course. For Adjutant General (personnel, human resources, etc, like 42A) it's ~10 weeks. You have to have a bachelor's before promotion to Captain, which is ~6 years from commission, so there's no way you could screw that up. Just throwing that out there if it's a viable option for you.
Source(s):
US Army Infantry
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Answered By: stnewton09 - 7/31/2009 |