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

I have a friend who served 4 years and showed me his ID it said E-7 It took me 10 years to make E-7. I was Navy he was Army maybe some of you Army guys can tell me how did he make E-7 in only 4 years I know there is no way you can do that in the Navy.

What happened to time in service and rank requirements?

I think that how fast you make rank is situational and maybe a little bit of luck. However I will say you can get promoted before you are ready. I have soldiers today that struggle with responsibility because they didn't get the type of mentor ship they needed for the next rank. If that soldier can't adapt it only causes the soldiers below him/her pain because their leader can't take care of them like they need to. However you never know what your going to get until you get promoted and get that time in the new position. Success or failure is always up to the individual.

I made E-5 in four, and E-6 in eleven. The AF WAPS system seemed to be geared through time-in-grade/time-in-service scoring to preclude riding the rocket sled up the ranks. In my first couple tests, I would have had to test above 100% to make the cut for my AFSC.

Had a POL guy who made E-5 in under 4. He literally ran around the building (outside) for almost 5 minutes yelling 'I made Staff in under 4'. Pretty sure he retired as a Chief Master Sgt.

Depends on the individual and what training they received. A lifetime ago I made E-5 in 5 years but didn't get to Leadership school until two years later. Not for lack of trying. The lack of training was a disadvantage. Fortunately I had great supervisors during the first couple of years of and didn't enlist until I was 23. I may have had the advantage of maturity but also emulated those supervisors. It served me well enough until I got training I needed.

The story was going around in Germany in the 1970s.
A new arrival at the unit asked if it was hard to make E-6. The reply was, "Not if you are an E-7."

I made E-3 in one year in the Air Force and stayed there for 3 years. The Medical field never got rank. I worked with an E-4 with 12 years and an E-5 with 16.

Cast my remarks in the light of someone who has been retired for 30 years. During my career this happened with the rapid expansion for Vietnam. Units required additional people to be deployable and the time in grade for many promotions was shorter than was previous to allow for the influx of new people. Happened to enlisted and officer promotions. I know of some who were on leave and assigned to training enroute to VN who had both their promotion to first lieutenant and selection to captain paperwork waiting for them when they got to their new assignment.
This phenom resulted in their spending a longer than "normal" time in the grade that they had gotten an accelerated promotion to, and a hump in the number in that grade. Those behind the hump had to wait until the hump smoothed out, so spent more time in their junior grade than those who had been in that grade a short time earlier who got the accelerated promotions.
Unfortunately, I was one of those "behind the hump" and was anxiously anticipating selection every month until it hit me that the accelerated promotions had passed.
Obviously, the majority of those who received the accelerated promotions did not have the "normal" experience of their seniors in that grade, but the people who had progressed in the normal, longer process picked up the slack and paid more attention to the grooming of the rapid selectees.

Having a bachelor's degree enlisting will get you E-4. Having said that, having all that college used to get you huge promotion points and promotions came quickly. I feel that yes, maybe gaining rank quickly can have challenges. On the other side of the coin, Soldiers should respect the rank, not the person.
As a 1st Sergeant, I saluted the young 2nd Louie...I respected the uniform.