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

I cannot address the intra-service political aspects because I barely got to E-4, but I can advise you based on my 65 years of learning from my own civilian leadership mistakes and those of others I have observed.

Genuine humility NEVER goes out of style and is ALWAYS respected by anyone worth their leadership salt. It is even more respected by those you are assigned to lead. And yes, it IS indeed possible to exercise effective command authority with humility. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are stellar examples. Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower are a couple from more recent times.

From that same era, Douglas MacArthur, on the other hand, was a military genius yet possessed an ego so large it's a wonder he could wear his hat. It eventually cost him his command.

Bobby Lee lost Gettysburg because he started believing his own press releases and threw sound military strategy to the wind. That mistake cost him the battle and ultimately the war.

And we all know how Saddam Hussein screwed-up by the numbers and where he ended up.

Once you start believing your own press releases, you have started the countdown on your next major screw-up. Depending upon your MOS and duty station, such hubris could end up costing lives, as it definitely did with Lee.

Made mine in a bit over 5, so I was 23 and a lot under me were 30 or older in DS. I got little respect and tons of backlash that I didn't earn it.

Honestly????? At the ripe old age of 17 the Army NG wanted me to go to OCS. At the time I turned it down. I had just enough maturity to know I was too immature to be an 0-1

Armed Forces Personnel join and sign up to be in the Band and make Rank fast. The AF has restructured how band members move up. There is now a weighted Airman’s promotion tests for Airmen. The AF just announced it is eliminating WAPS testing for E-7 theough E-9 and using a promotion board... A whole different ball game..

We had a female Boatswain mate on my last ship, brand new in the Navy and started off as an E-1. In 4 years, and 3 Command Advancement Program promotions, she left to go to be a bootcamp Company Commander where she promptly made Chief. She left the Navy as a Chief with 7 years in.

With just a year in service, soon after turning 19, I made it to E4 by being honor grad in my classes. It was probably too soon. I didn't have the maturity to back up my rank and lacked any real leadership skills, a fact that became obvious anytime I was tasked with leading a detail of E3s and below. The extra pay and two-man room in the barracks was nice though.

I enlisted at 17, 2 months after graduation for my first enlistment of 6 years. The Air Force gave me 2 stripes (A1C). That was back in 1981, I don’t know if they still do that. I went below the zone,(before a board of NCO’s) and tested and passed the first time and that gave me E-4 (Senior Airmen).And one year later I became a Sgt. E-4 NCO. Then E-5 before my first enlistment ended. I retired as an E-8 at 39 years old.

There is in that at starting at e6 your responsibilities include more than troop to task and training , there is a level of management and pers. admin , care of troops that is beyond food water and rest in the modern army . It doesn’t have to with age but maturity level, I was the victim of nco who progressed too fast and as a result had many easily avoidable paperwork snafu : not knocking making rank fast but starting at e6 you either have to know or taken on the responsibility of learning how the arm works and what the army wants : the basic foundation is a live healthy soldier who knows thier job while we would all love to be rangers with a 400 pt score the army as a whole just needs to make sure everyone is passing at standard , as far as the personnel side it’s easy to master as long as you legit care about your charge and that’s where maturity plays a role . Has nothing to do with how quickly you make rank or age but depending on yournunit thier are many who won’t let you end run as a soldier tonfiz a problem and the biggest problem I had was counseling I never had an accurate or complete leader book or counseling gnpackets even when I did them for myself they were lost or mishandled school requests got sat on no matter how many times submitted etc and too often if you lack maturity you let personal feelings interfere for example I have seen soldiers not e allowed airborne because some one didn’t like them even though they pre qualified better then those that went and failed

must be nice.

I earned my SSG E6 in 3 1/2 yrs because those in command thought I could handle it, and they were right.