How does an E6 have 6 service stripes?

Three times six = 18 plus..

I had enlisted in the Army in Cleveland, Ohio and took the train to Fort Knox Kentucky for basic training..
Upon arrival in Kentucky it turned out that they were having one of the worst winters on record and we were billeted in the usual barracks of WW ll era. We were still in civilian clothes and it was like a block of ice in those barracks... Way too cold to sleep.... Their solution was to have us all climb out of the bunks and issue us a bath towel to wrap around our head until the next morning... A corporal was in charge of us during this time.. He commented something akin to we were the sorriest bunch of recruits he had ever seen in his seventeen years in this man's Army.... Someone blurted out a question or statement to the affect "You have been the Army for seventeen years and you are just a corporal?... It went downhill from there.... I have never seen a madder white man in my life...

I was thinking it was 4 years per stripe but I guess thats just for Marines

Length of service and rank are not necessarily tied together and its foolish to assume that one or both can tell you anything about the soldier. When I was a young Captain in Vietnam with 4 years service at the time, there was another Captain in the unit that had 29 years service and was retiring with 30 years at the end of his tour. He had been enlisted (and part of the D-Day landing in 1944), then a Warrant, and then late in his career was offered a commission and he took it. Neither his rank nor his length of service could be assumed to mean what you might assume about this good soldier and good man.

Maybe he is National Guard or Reserve. Not unusual at all if this the case. Or he is in an MOS where it takes an act of God for someone to get promoted. I was a 95B, (old school MP), in the 1970s and 1980s where I was a SP4 for a little over three years before I was promoted to SGT. At that time promotions we're based on a 1000 pont system. Promotion to SGT took 998 points, you could have every award under the sn, finished as Honor Grad at every school you could attend and not reach the cut off score. When I was promoted the points dropped for one month then went right back up. So until you walk a mile in the SSG shoes, shut your pie hole PFC.

I had 24 years when I retired as a Specialist. Before a bunch of people call me a liar or otherwise attack my character there is a simple reason for that, several in fact.
1. I served in the Army Reserves, National Guard in three towns and on active duty twice.
2. I had four MOS’s because either my new unit didn’t have a slot in my old MOS or it took longer to get promoted in my old MOS than in my new one.
3. When I was doing this if you left the reserves/guard to go active or visa versa you went back to the rank you were when you had left that part of the army, so if I was an E-4 (p) and had been an E-2 when I changed I technically lost three ranks for no reason aside from that was the regs back then.
4. I was stupid towards the end of my service. I didn’t (and still don’t) drink much so I didn’t think about what constituted a DUI in Europe were I was at the time. It was a 0.05 instead of the 0.08 that we are familiar with here. I went to get my step daughter on New Year’s Eve after she was left stranded and I only drank two drinks 1.5 hours prior. I went through a checkpoint and blew a 0.054. First DUI of the year went from an E-5 (P) back to an E-4 for the third time.
5. More stupidity on my part. Everyone knew I had got a raw deal since that was my only article 15 the second time I was active (I also had one the first time I was active as well for not reporting for duty when I had paid someone to take my shift. They didn’t and I was with my girlfriend. Two article 15’s in 24 years is pretty good in my opinion. I know many with a lot more than that in less time) and wanted me to go back to the board. I refused for 6 years. At first it was because I was mad, but once I got to my last duty station it was because I enjoyed working with the officers I was helping in some small way with their training and knew if I was promoted I would have to leave & probably work in an office somewhere alone. I was a Supply Specialist at the time working in an admin position. So there are five reasons why a Specialist (p)/Corporal had Eight service stripes on his uniform. Everyone is different so we all take different paths on our journey to the same destination. (Btw: I have just finished college at 53 and am now a professional photographer. It makes all the bs I went through, regardless of if it was mine or the army’s doing, worth it).

Worry about your own career and making it to E4. Or how about asking the Soldier yourself. It’s called verbal communication. Something most privates do on the phone now.

That question reveals an ignorance of life in general, never mind the military. You oughta start paying attention, private O'hara. Might save you some grief.

He has been a hard worker, done his time and been over looked. It happens some people are low key, get the jobs done time and time again. These are the givers. They will give anything to make the Army better, but these same people seldom stand out nor to they attract attention to themselves. He is the man who knows his job inside and out I want him by my side when bullets are flying. I dont want that kids who has all the college. and Little Experience . When I got out I saw a lot of pfc with BS and even MS degrees. oh they can read the books, but their life experiences I would not have wanted to go to war with them. They lack something COMMON SENSE!

I'm an e6 and have 5 service strips