If you did a 6-year contract, do you have to spend the whole 6 years at your 1st duty station?

No, you only have to do 3 years at a duty station. As you get closer to that mark, you can call your branch manager and ask to move. If you're willing to go airborne, it's even sooner.

It also depends on the type of unit you’re assigned too. Depending upon if the unit is a rotational unit, you can be “fenced in”, meaning you would have to get approval from the Brigade CSM and/or the BN CDR. I personally know a quite a bit of SM who have been at the duty assignment 5yrs plus due to being fenced in.

it happened to me. I spent 5+ years on Ft. Bliss. I eventually came down on orders to Korea though. But I was the only soldier of my mos in a unique unit.

SGT (Join to see) No. I re-enlisted for Ft Devens (4 year contract). I arrived at Ft Devens from Ft Lewis September 1990 and came down on orders in June of 1991 and departed Ft Devens September 1991, 1 year and 1 week after arriving.

I enlisted for 6 on my first contract and got to go to Fort Hunter Liggett and Boblingen Germany.

It’s basically up to you if and when you go to a second and subsequent duty station. Your branch manager and lays a large part in that as well. I left my first duty station after 2.5 years because I wanted to. 1 of those years was spent in Iraq as well. I called branch because I wanted to go somewhere else instead of staying at Ft Campbell forever. I know other people that spent 5+ years there as their first assignment. Either because they wanted to stay there or because they didn’t make any attempt to go anywhere else. It’s your career/future and most of it is in your hands. I like diversity. Being able to move to different locations and work in different types of units. I feel it helps me grow as a Soldier and NCO. I believe that Soldiers who stay at the same location (especially their first) for an extended period of time have a skewed outlook of the Army. They think it’s the greatest place but he fact is they don’t know anything about anywhere else. Look at it this way, your military experience is like a résumé. The more places you go, the more diverse experience you have.

Needs of the Army.

If you get all the schooling you can out of the way and go through your Warrior leadership course to become a sergeant, I suspect you will be needed elsewhere. Do all that you can to better yourself with every available School for specialty and I'm sure you won't be stuck in one spot. Check out these ribbons and see the ones you don't want to get being stuck in the same place. This can also happen if you max out your PT test if you are still using the old ones or do the best you can on the new test. I used to be on the highest order of Merit list for anything because I used to get a 300 on my APFT