E6 in 3 years? Is there such thing as making rank too soon?

I don’t know about the army today and speed of promotions. I joined in 1960 and retired in 1982. During the early 60s it was not unusual for NCOs to retire in grades E5 and E6. I saw some quit old captains and majors. Enlisted senior grade promotions were not centralized. Then Vietnam happened. I made E6 in 5 years just a little over a year TIG and E7 with 7 years TIG at age 27. Made E8 in 12 years and E9 at 17 years. Good for me but not sure it was right for the army. All that aside, yes I was promoted way to fast. Real maturity and realization really didn’t show up until after I made E8 and found out big time I had a lot of catching up to do. It was not easy to supervise and lead soldiers much older than you and with much more experience. Bottom line maturity, experience, and leadership ability should should be the keys to promotion not a bunch of paper.

There really may be something to making rank too soon; I made E-8 rather quickly. After my selection I made a trip to my command HQ, joint command, and the deputy commander, USAF colonel, called me into his office to advise me that I might have made E-8 too soon and could hurt me in making E-9; while on the other hand the commander, a two-star U.S. Marine endorsed me all the way. The Colonel told me he had sat on many selection boards and had seen this often; as it turns out I did miss E-9, Chief Master Sergeant, in two cycles by .75 each of the two years...decided to retire. HN

My father in law made E-7 in 2 years. He was USAAF stationed on Tinian Island Aug 1945. He was a little upset when his daughter told him she was dating an older guy who was married before. When I asked her to go to a formal with me, she told her father I was coming to pick her up. He wasn't that thrilled until I showed up as a major in dress blues, and all of a sudden I became God in his eyes.

I joined when I was 21. In HS I was in ROTC and played sports. In College, I played two sports softball and basketball and worked. I knew i would have been a better NCO than the useless squad leader we had who made e-5 with a waiver. It would have taken a waiver for me to be promoted and they didn't want two NCO's on a waiver in the same platoon.

91-99 I went in as an E-3, made e-4 in less than a year. I had enough promotion points to make e-7 at my 4-year mark. I maxed out on Military education points and Civilian education points. The only place I could get more points was my PT test but no way I was scoring 300 on that. My only issue of not getting promoted was going to PLDC. Every time I was slotted to go I blew out my knees. They have both been replaced now. I was Active 91-96 then NG

I saw something similar in Medical School. Jefferson had a 5 year program in which High School graduates went to Penn State for the next summer, academic year, the NEXT summer, then (when they would have been sophomores in college) started their first of 4 years at Jefferson. The next summer they were back at Penn State, then they finished their 2nd, 3rd and 4th years at Jefferson. And there you are; 5 years out from High School and you have MD after your name.
These kids stuck out in our class. They were, of course, brilliant. But they had NO real world experience. We more traditional 4 year college grads had at LEAST figured out how to handle alcohol and unsupervised social interactions. These folks had not even gotten that far yet.
Being a doctor is about WAY more than book learning. It's about life. A LOT of what we do in uniform is the same. You don't really learn about the life part until you've experienced it.

I am aware of someone who made E-7 in under 4. he was what we call a "Slick Sleeve" as he had no Hash marks. They would let him in the CPO Club at Cape May, until he got a hash mark. He was an ET ( Electronics Technician ). He got his hash mark and a Shipping over Bonus which was $12.000, and that was a lot of money in '66. I got some of it playing poker. LOL

I joined the Army on 8 Dec 1947 (at age 17) and was discharged on 14 Feb 1948 on a medical discharge. I enlisted again (fraudelent) on 28 July 1948 (got the fraudelent mess all squared away and no charges filed). I made Cpl E4 on 4 Dec 1950, SSgt E5 on 11 July 1951, SFC E6 on 9 Feb 1953 and then a long haul to SFC E7 on 14 Aug 1961 and then MSG E8 on 16 Mar 1966 (retired on 1 July 1972. When I made E6, I was 23 years of age and NCOIC of a large Comm Center. My last 6 years in were as 1SGT of 4 Army Security Agency Agency units. I feel I was not too young or got promoted too fast. I really enjoyed my Army career although they kept me overseas for 15 1/2 years with duty in Korea and Vietnam.

I made E5 in 6 months but then again it was Vietnam 1969-1970 and I was in the 1st Infantry Infantry and yes I was ahead of the curve in regards to responsibility to the squad and volunteering for things no one wanted ( like becoming a point man ).

I made E-5 in three years and did not know enough to be a real Sargent. My promotions were combat-related because of time there and a shortage of personal. Many things I should have been able to do I could not.

Depends on the individual and has to be evaluated on a case by case basis. I made E-6 in three years and two months and continued to advance throughout the remainder of my career for the next 25 years.