How does an E6 have 6 service stripes?

He could be prior service like me and was dropped down a rank 2 like me and had to play catch up. I am a Ssg with 18 years service and just 15 active duty. So I will have more if not the same on my chest and sleeve as a Sgt major. .

Rules change (maybe is what it's been meant by when having heard former Marines speaking i.e. WASN'T LIKE THAT IN THE OLD CORPS!) But anyway when I enlisted on the Buddy plan-1970 we had this Recruit as we all were but who had spent X-years in the Navy,though when commencement day came it was with him having X-hash marks on his uniforms sleeve and only rank of E2...but then again can not say all of us in our graduating Platoon that day had been Recruits as that era was the last the drafting law had been implanted. But do know for certain that E2 and uniform that day had my respect even when only having come out with the rank E2 as well

I retired as a Sgt... served in three branches. List rank each time I transferred. Did not make it back. Never had and UCMJ never got reduced in grade Accept for those times while transferring to other branches.

United States Navy 1988-1994 E-1 to E-6
Transferred to United States Army
Had to go through Basic Training again.
United States Army 1994-2000 E-4 to E-6
Transferred to United States Air Force
United States Air Force 2000-2004 E-2 to E-4
Forced out due to exceeding time in grade requirements before I could get my rank back.
Transferred back to United States Army
United States Army 2004-2008 E-3 to E-5
My unit tried to get my rank back after E-5 but the civilians refused to update my ERB I went to the board with my old Army Service Record and my blank ERB along with my DD-214 the bird refused to accept. I was Separated by MEB on March 13, 2008 with Permanent Disability Retirement for injures received while deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. So that is how you get that many service stripes with out being a POS. Things happens in my life the choices I made. I still would not trade the twenty years I spent for anything. I’m happy with my service because I did it with honor and integrity. In the end that is all that matters.

Nothing to explain really. SSG (Join to see) has been explicit that it is not uncommon for NCOs to retire as SSG and you are absolutely right that the experienced SSG has 18 years in service; no Articles or POS - SSG Cortez retired when I had just earned my first rocker and six months later I was filling the position SSG Cortez left as a SGT. My man SSG Cortez had no derogs at all in his file; Juan was squeaky clean.

Why question that?

Service stripes and overseas bars are intended to communicate a hard-earned level of experience.

An E-6 in any service is an average retirement rank. This could be a lesson about MOS's (and AFSC's as in my case) that are very small career fields with limited promotion opportunities or any number of other factors that could have been beyond this sergeant's control. It happens.

This looks like a school photo to me. He's photographed with four other very junior EMs. He could have been their instructor, their class leader, or even one of the students in retraining mode. He obviously earned their respect and the photo reflects that.

Take a closer look at that uniform and what must be or have been an impressive career. There are 10 ribbons/decorations, marksmanship badges and what might be a combat action badge. That's what counts to me, not service stripes. That is what should count for you and give you an example to strive to achieve.

BTW...For reference. For me to make E-7, I retrained three times and took a special duty assignment. I was seven years as an E-6.

I am about to have 6 stripes as well and shit happens. I was stuck at an e4 rank for awhile to to the good ol boy system back in the day.

I had 3 as a SP4 after a three year brake in Service. got out after 7 Years got out as a E6.came back as SP4, Spent 3 years in Active Reserve. So Sp4 don't make assumptions, as you know what it makes you.

You should have commented on the fact that he has a CAB and 8 overseas service bars - that's four years playing in the sandbox - longer than you have been in the Army. I can't see his ribbon rack clearly but he's probably been to both Iraq and Afghanistan. If he's been in the Army 18 years that means he's been in combat zones for almost half of it.

There are several reasons why an NCO might be an "underachiever" (or POS in some circles).
First there are reasons that might be his fault - bad NCOERs, PT failure, failure to complete NCOES courses and/or pissing off his 1SG, CSM or Commander.
But, there are other reasons -
He might be in a MOS which has fewer promotion opportunities, he might not have completed an NCOES course because he was deployed (often), he might be happy and good at being a SSG and doesn't want to be an SFC, he might have had a superior who had a personal grudge against him and sabotaged his career by giving him a bad NCOER or denied him going to a school he needed.

Sure, the Army might kick him out when he reaches 20 years because of its "up or out" policy. That means they will have to recruit a new private to replace him. Will that private spend 4 years in combat zones and stick around for 20 years? Probably not.

For what its worth, I spent more time as an E-5 than anyone would believe. (Trust me.) I still managed to do two tours in Iraq ("only" 4 overseas service bars) and retire as a Master Sergeant. Yes, some of it was effort - but some of it was dumb luck.

Easy, If You Were Prior Service E-5 With 13Yrs, Some Rater Were Slower Than Others

Possible break in service. Most likely in an MOS that has limited slots for SFCs. Think of it like this. An SFC is a Platoon Sergeant or Staff NCOIC. If he is in an MOS that only has 1 platoon in each active division that would be 10 SFC slots total. That is the way slotting and MTOEs work. Sometime there are occasions where you would be over strength but it is few and far between. Now add in possibly one Staff NCOIC slot per Division and you have 20 slots in all the Army for however many are competing.

My example is the MOS 15Y. This is an AH-64 Apache Armament, Electrical, and Avionics repairer. At the SFC level there are only about 30 slots across the Army. There are about 100 SSG slots across the Army for the same mos and over 400 at the SGT level. SGT to SSG is semi centralized so if you have the points and prerequisite NCOES you will get picked up. That usually leaves you with an excess of SSGs. Not sure the number but I would estimate over 50-60 excess SSGs than slots across the Army. Some of them end up recruiters or drill sgts and other things like that, but eventually as long as they meet time in service and grade requirements they will have to compete for the 5-10 open SFC slots across the Active Army. You have to remember other 15Y SFCs still exist in this number and usually they are filling most of the Slots already. So now 100+ eligibles are competing for maybe 5 slots. I have seen many of my peers who were exceptional Soldiers and Leaders retire as a SSG. I would never take anything away from them.