Did you ever have a promotion held up? What were the circumstances?

2022-01-05T20:09:41-05:00

Anyone got any stories of how a promotion was unjustly delayed for whatever reason? I had kind of a rough start adapting to the ways of the Army, so I ended up going from E-1 to E-2 a month late, but I got my PFC right on time. Things had smoothed out by then in my day to day Army life.

Then, a year later, things had been going very well in my platoon / squad / team, and getting E-4 on time would have been no problem at all. Then... I got orders for Korea, arriving there just a month or so before my 26 month E-4 eligibility. There were issues on both sides. My chain of command was all like "Well, we've got to wait a while and see how you do first", then aside from that, I did have some rather severe personality conflicts with several people in my immediate area of operations. Then after that, too many E3-E6 people in my company really drank the proverbial Kool-Aid and were all full of themselves and all HOO-AH and overly excited about being so close to North Korea (I was in Camp Hovey, north of Seoul). So the deck was really stacked against me, never mind the fact that I was doing my job as well there as at my previous USA duty station. I was never the type to go out getting drunk all the time with them, but I was fine with being the outsider if it meant that drinking was the only way to be accepted in the group. I eventually got my E-4 6 months overdue, but only because it came through on my LES statement, then my local NCOs kind of begrudgingly agreed to it and just said "go pin on your rank, grumble grumble". Well, for the way they treated me, and considering they knew nothing of my good performance at the previous duty station, I didn't feel I needed their approval. I was disappointed about not getting my promotion ceremony of standing up in front of the company to get E-4 pinned on. The only promotion I had that was done right was E-2 to E-3.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Jan 5 at 2022 8:16 PM

2022-01-05T20:16:35-05:00

I've never been promoted on time. Ever. Orders production generally leads to a 1-3 month wait from announcement to pinning.

From what I've seen, that's not unusual.

Response by SFC Ralph E Kelley made Jan 5 at 2022 9:41 PM

2022-01-05T21:41:34-05:00

No but I made PFC twice - does that count?

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 5 at 2022 9:51 PM

2022-01-05T21:51:56-05:00

I was Promised E-4 if we came out #1 on an inspection of our Comany's motorpool vehicle paperword.... then got levied 11B to Vietnam & they screwed me out of it. Didn't want to "waste" a promotion on someone leaving... that's their story & they stuck to it.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Jan 5 at 2022 11:50 PM

2022-01-05T23:50:44-05:00

Promotions are not guaranteed unless it is a contract option.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2022 1:08 AM

2022-01-06T01:08:51-05:00

It was March 2019 before Covid took effect.

There was a ceremony for a CPT being promoted to MAJ.

The order was read, and the DOR was said to be AUGUST 2017.

I remember thinking, "what did he just say?????"

Response by LTC Eugene Chu made Jan 6 at 2022 7:38 AM

2022-01-06T07:38:45-05:00

As enlisted, my promotion to E-4 occurred after 36 months instead of 24. I do not know exact circumstances, but I attribute it to apathy instead of being targeted.

As an officer, my promotion to O-5 occurred late. It was due to being mobilized as an O-4 and needing to transfer into a new slot after I demobilized.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Jan 6 at 2022 8:12 AM

2022-01-06T08:12:39-05:00

I graduated first out of A School and paper was cut to promote to E-4. Didn't matter when I went aboard ship as they pulled the paperwork to make sure I did my 90 days in the scullery. Paper magically reappeared after that.

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2022 9:41 AM

2022-01-06T09:41:20-05:00

I wouldn’t pay attention to anything anyone else does outside of work, for the simple fact that it doesn’t do you any good. A lot of Soldiers tend to worry about what everyone else is doing and it gets them nowhere. Continue to work on you and everything else will land in place. The great thing about being a PVT-SPC is that you have plenty of time to work on yourself, due to you not having leadership responsibility yet. Get some college in, knock out your MilEd, study for the board, volunteer, pay attention when you’re being taught…the promotions will be there if you’re putting the work in.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2022 11:51 AM

2022-01-06T11:51:52-05:00

If you ever get pinned the new rank the very day you become eligible, then you have achieved the near impossible. Now, I won't make excuses for your Leadership but I will say that from E-1 to E-4 it takes the Commander signing approval on the 4187 for your advancement. Just because you hit your TIS/TIG marks for the next grade does not mean you will get pinned those days. If the Commander doesn't sign them until a month later....well, while there is no real excuse for that...it also can't be helped. Now, if the system shows you're getting paid for the next grade, then all the better. Also, I totally understand that you want to get the ceremony in front of the unit, and it's annoying when that doesn't happen. I can say with damn near 100% certainty that when you start making the NCO ranks, you'll get the ceremony in front of the unit.

Again, if the 4187 is signed and processed on time, then it's usually about a month afterwards that you should get pinned. But, being that you're a SPC now, this all becomes water under the bridge and time to move on. What you can do, is take this experience and hold on to it for when you become an NCO and you have troops ready for advancement and now you can become their advocate to ensure they get pinned on time and get that ceremony in front of everyone.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2022 12:21 PM

2022-01-06T12:21:41-05:00

When I transferred to the Army as an E-7 from the Air Force, My leadership did not like me because they feel that I was not Army material. By then I had put in 25 years in the military (11 years active and the rest is reserves and guard). I tried to get promoted to E-8 but they told me that I have to do all the army leadership school even though I completed all the leadership school in the Air Force. I even completed the Air Force NCO Academy which is 6 weeks course. But I went ahead and did all my leadership school and all the computer leadership schooling and even work on my college degree at the same time. I still got jacked around by my leadership and never got promoted. I looked at the situation that God has another plan for me. I ended up retiring active duty instead of reserve retirement which is the trade off to the retirement. My advice to you is don't listen to anybody about not volunteering. Be a squared away soldier. You want to show your leadership that you are a team player weather you get promoted or not. Do not wait for your supervisor to get your important records completed such as emergency data card, shot records, etc. Also, get your military schooling done. Stay on top of every and be prepared. Always remember It is better to be prepared and have the opportunity than have the opportunity and not be prepared. That is what I told my son who is now a certified paramedic and who just got picked up for an AGR position with the Arizona Army National Guard. He also just got promoted to E-5 and in less than 1 year, he is pinning E-6 and he is also being groom for a E-7 AGR position. He was prepared. Good luck to you. Remember, the Army is not bad it's just bad leadership.

Response by MSG William Wold made Jan 6 at 2022 9:19 PM

2022-01-06T21:19:04-05:00

I did not get E2 out of basic but two weeks of AIT I did. Then made honor graduate out of AIT and they are pinning SP4 on. Um I'm still E2, nope you were promoted to PFC 13 days ago. Making honor graduate is an automatic promotion one grade. Ok I'll take it. Got some back pay finally. Did the rest of my enlistment that way. Took NCO basic course and was "promised" E5 if I re enlist but the cutoff score was really high. Was going to re enlist but my dad wanted me to come home and work the store he was in the process of purchasing he had worked at for 15 years. So I did. Only his deal fell thru. I should have went back in. I joined the National Guard. Next drill I was pinned E5. A year later I was sent back to Active Duty for a 7 months Warrant Officer course. When I returned there was a civilian/miilitary maintenance position opening with the Guard I applied for. The next drill I was called forward and pinned WO1. An hour later I was called out to HQ. Oops there's been a mistake. What? Yes we were going to award you the maintenance position but it calls for a soldier to be an enlisted person because you cannot out rank your civilian supervisor in his military position, so we only allow supervisors to be WO or officers. Ah but I really want this job. A few phone calls and I was "demoted" to SSG with an understanding that unwinding this, that WO would not exist on my records. Fine.. So stayed SSG for 12 years, SFC 10, and MSG 5 years I retire MSgt and civilian wise a GS11.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2022 3:11 PM

2022-01-07T15:11:42-05:00

Well technically: Promotion to SPC is 24 months TIS and 6 months TIG.

So you should have gotten promoted when you got there; however, the commander - if they elected to not recommend a soldier for promotion on the automatic promotion date - has to annotate "no" on the eligibility report and then send a 4187 denying the promotion. Then a DA 268 has to be submitted NLT 19th of the month preceding the automatic promotion. The first line leader is to counsel the soldier and then the 4187 and 4856 have to be attached to the enlisted advancement report before forwarding it to the BN S1. The BN S1 then has to submit a flag transaction in the personnel system to block the promotion.

So if none of that was done no one actually "stopped" you from getting promoted. It seems like it should have been automatic at 24 months TIS and 6 months TIG unless something was submitted stopping it. So what's your DOR on your SRB? Why did nothing show up until your LES?

Then this: "I did have some rather severe personality conflicts with several people in my immediate area of operations" what came of those "personality conflicts?"

Whenever you had orders, you could have pinned on your SPC. You don't need a ceremony to pin on new rank. Hell I pinned on SFC in front of like a few people from my section, my dad came and then significant other (now is ex husband) and I was pregnant. We did it in the company in this room that used to be a game room for the barracks I think (the company was in the barracks) but we generally used it whenever we had a UA. I think the 1SG was there. Literally that was all I had for pinning on SFC. I had more for pinning SGT than I did SFC. I honestly didn't care - I would have been fine with just swapping out my rank on the DOR for my SFC.

I honestly don't see the issue and I feel like there's more to the story (as usual on this site).

Did I ever personally have to wait long for promotion? No but I've seen others who did because of different reasons. Sometimes, that happens.