How does an E6 have 6 service stripes?

Service stripes, denote time spent in the US ARMY or NAVY. Just because an NCO has dix doesn't mean he's showing false valor or been busted from E8. That NCO maybe hasn't been promoted for various reasons and is not your concern. He has the service time and the stripes for service to prove it.

Everyone is quick to judge, especially on Rallypoint. The Facebook drama page for the military.

For the Marines, each service stripe is 4 years so he would have 4 working on 5. For the Marines, it would depend heavily on MOS. I was in tanks and, with 18 years in, I would expect someone to be a Gunnery Seargent or 1st Sgt./Master Sgt. Infantry would be an entirely different story. Infantry in the Marines tends to promote much more slowly and 18 years might only be a SSgt. I would assume this is fairly similar for all the branches.

He could have had a break in service. You don't get the same rank you had when you ETS'd if you return to the service. Also, he may have had several years reserve service. Rank is earned differently in the reserves.

Hes been in 18 yrs so what! Thats a good thing! Maybe he had his rank removed and then gained it back. It does happen!

Not everyone wants to get promoted and take a platoon. Thats when the job starts getting more political than fun.

It is really hard to tell, but it looks like that SSG is wearing the MI crest. Since non of the PFC's have Beret Emblems I am assuming this is an AIT graduation photo. Which means the SSG in the photo is probably an instructor, so not only is he in a very small branch, he is also been a career instructor, and there may not be many E-7 slots.

But is also possible that there are slots, but for whatever reason the points needed for advancement basically close the field at the E-6 level. It is hard to get 1000 points if your pt score is average, and you shoot average.

Great question Private. So a Staff Sergeant with 18 years of service is not that uncommon. Really depends on his MOS. There are alot of MOS groups that have alot of people vying for promotion and there just are not enough promotions to go around. Also you have a fair amount of Soldiers that are comfortable doing what they are doing and have a boat load of experience as a team leader and dont necessarily want to move up. With promotion to Sergeant First Class comes more responsibility and more expectations. Some folks dont want that are are content with their current position. Now the Army doesnt approve of status quo so you might hear folks talk about up or out. I.e. do what you need to do to get promoted and strive to climb the rank ladder or get out. BLUF as a 42A Soldier you can do alot of research about promotions and MOS professional development schools to see how it actually affects Soldiers in certain MOS groups. One other point, you will most definitely see National Guard Soldiers with alot of service stripes but maybe not alot of stripes or chevrons on their uniform. Simply put, often enough they cannot get their required MOS professional development course, BLC, ALC, etc, so they languish as a Staff Sergeant for years because there are not enough school quotas offered to Guard Soldiers as Active Component Soldiers. So no school no promotion, but you keep doing your job to the best of your ability until you can complete your schooling and eventually get promoted. Hope this helps explain alittle. BTW when yiu see something like dont ever assume that something is wrong, i.e. he must be wearing the wrong things. You have to understand the big picture, get the facts dont just go with what you see.

I'm an E-5 with 26 years service. My service stripes touch my PO-2 chevrons. I spent almost 12 years in the USAF and got out for a couple years. Went into the USA and had to start all over as E nobody. After 6 years the USA got rid of all MASH units (except 1 they keep around for R&D) so I switched to the USN assigned to the USMC. They gave me a temporary rank of PO-2 while I did all the requirements to keep it. During this time I went "Marine Regs". My "Navy side" CO hated Marine Regs Corpsman and ordered us out of the USMC Service Dress. I did the research on regulations and fought it. His superiors agreed with me and us Corpsmen kept of USMC Service Dress. I passed every promotion test after that. My results always came back, "Passed, not promoted". Seems Commander Izavich got butt hurt by an E-5 that knew regulations and wasn't afraid to challenge rank when it was wrong.

Mandatory removal date is somewhere around 20 years federal active service for the pay grade E-6, aka Army Staff Sergeant so it is plausible as not everyone is selected for promotion to the pay grade of E-7. Plus too, the SSG may have had several "good" years of service in a Reserve Component thus warranting service stripes. So yup, you can be a Staff Sergeant with 6 service stripes on your uniform.