BTW, IIRC, the Air Force already has the slowest promotions. I made E-6 in a little less than 4 years. As I understand it, that’s unheard of in the Air Force. Plus, they have no warrant officers.
You are correct, I knew an E-4 who retired after 20 years with a spotless record. As she told me, in the Air Force you have kiss, ( a lot of different things), to get promoted in peacetime. And Gulf War I and II didn’t help.
Hmmm. Sounds fishy. I knew a dope that was an E-5 after nearly 20 years, but that was almost unheard of.
I have never heard of an E-4 retiring except medical. The current high-year-tenure is 10 years for E-4, 15 years for E-5, so you won’t see anyone retiring at that rank now. (HTY=if you don’t make the next rank by that time, you’re out.)
It’s almost impossible to have a spotless record and not make E-5. You need to have decent EPRs (4’s and 5’s on a very inflated 5 scale), pass your fitness tests, and take a test. By the 10-year mark, you can probably score high enough on the test by selecting all C’s on the multiple choice test. There have been times where making E-5 was pretty difficult, but that really hasn’t been the case since maybe 1990.
E-6 in 4 years is impossible, but some other branches of service have more downward rank mobility, too.
Never knew an E-4 with a spotless record who could stay for 20 years in the Air Force. If I remember correctly, enlisted members had to reach E-5 by the 13 year point, or they faced involuntary separation.
The Air Force has long had the slowest promotions among its NCO Corps. Naturally, the needs of the service come first (as you learn from Day One of basic training). But the size of your career field/AFSC also plays a factor. If you’re in a small speciality or career field (in terms of manning) your advancement may come at a glacial pace.
I know this from personal experience. During my enlisted days, I was a unit historian, now the 3H0X1 career field. During my tenure, there were less than 150 airmen in the AFSC, and there were only two E-8 and one E-9 slot in our career field. Additionally, a number of us had our bachelor’s degrees, so everyone tended to do well on their promotion tests.
In other words, the Air Force didn’t need to promote very many historians to keep the career field balanced and it was a very competitive group. As a result, the cutoff scores for E-5 and E-6 were often 90-100 points higher than other career fields. Over the course of a typical year, it was common for a couple of individuals to make SSgt (E-5); one person made E-6 and another would advance to E-7 (MSgt). Typically, the historians who got promoted had the most time in grade, and you could determine where you stood on the list.
I was lucky; my test for E-5 came before I earned my five skill-level in the historian career field, so IAW Air Force policies, I tested only on the professional knowledge portion of the exam. Many of the questions were weighted to USAF history, customs, organization—topics everyone in the career field were intimately familiar with. As a result, I made E-5 in three years and nine months, which was meteoric by Air Force standards. After that, I made the decision to apply for Officer Training School and (fortunately) I was accepted. If I had remained in my enlisted career field, I faced a 6-7 year wait for E-6 and a similar wait (beyond that) for E-7.
By that tine,a lot of the fast burners in large career fields and low cutoff scores would have been pinning on SMSgt (E-8) or Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). My career advancement prospects as an officer were much better than as an enlisted historian, even though I loved the job and would have gladly spent my career in that vocation.
As a rule, Air Force enlisted promotions are slow, but in some of the very small AFSCs, the pace is snail-like.
Never knew an E-4 with a spotless record who could stay for 20 years in the Air Force. If I remember correctly, enlisted members had to reach E-5 by the 13 year point, or they faced involuntary separation.
The Air Force has long had the slowest promotions among its NCO Corps. Naturally, the needs of the service come first (as you learn from Day One of basic training). But the size of your career field/AFSC also plays a factor. If you’re in a small speciality or career field (in terms of manning) your advancement may come at a glacial pace.
I know this from personal experience. During my enlisted days, I was a unit historian, now the 3H0X1 career field. During my tenure, there were less than 150 airmen in the AFSC, and there were only two E-8 and one E-9 slot in our career field. Additionally, a number of us had our bachelor’s degrees, so everyone tended to do well on their promotion tests.
In other words, the Air Force didn’t need to promote very many historians to keep the career field balanced and it was a very competitive group. As a result, the cutoff scores for E-5 and E-6 were often 90-100 points higher than other career fields. Over the course of a typical year, it was common for a couple of individuals to make SSgt (E-5); one person made E-6 and another would advance to E-7 (MSgt). Typically, the historians who got promoted had the most time in grade, and you could determine where you stood on the list.
I was lucky; my test for E-5 came before I earned my five skill-level in the historian career field, so IAW Air Force policies, I tested only on the professional knowledge portion of the exam. Many of the questions were weighted to USAF history, customs, organization—topics everyone in the career field were intimately familiar with. As a result, I made E-5 in three years and nine months, which was meteoric by Air Force standards. After that, I made the decision to apply for Officer Training School and (fortunately) I was accepted. If I had remained in my enlisted career field, I faced a 6-7 year wait for E-6 and a similar wait (beyond that) for E-7.
By that tine,a lot of the fast burners in large career fields and low cutoff scores would have been pinning on SMSgt (E-8) or Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). My career advancement prospects as an officer were much better than as an enlisted historian, even though I loved the job and would have gladly spent my career in that vocation.
As a rule, Air Force enlisted promotions are slow, but in some of the very small AFSCs, the pace is snail-like.