Is it possible to get promoted this quickly in the Air Force? Is this typical for band members?

As a Recruiter for 12 years and working with many AF Bands, many are College Grads also but do not get there bars. These are highly educated and talented people that do a great service for the AF!!

In the Air Guard I have seen people make E7 in min time only because the manning document showed they were in an E7 slot. Most of these positions are in career fields that rarely deploy while those that do seem to never see rank above E5 or E6 after a full career. For this person to see the Tech after only four month when the person that saved lives in France only got promoted to SSG is sickening. We can see where priorities lie.

Exactly why the other branches laugh at the Air Force... They are NOT a military organization....

When I was in boot 8 years ago, I had a shipmate that was guaranteed E6 after time in each rank. He was in the navy band. He said he got that spot because he it was such a prestigious position in DC and he beat out 50 other musicians. At the time I was wowed and congratulated him, but now after attaining the rank though work I can see how much leadership he must lack. I hope not. Definitely needs to reevaluated. Seems like rank is given out because it will look good.

Many years ago I had a Social Actions course at Bolling and their was a Chief from the AF Band attending. We got to talking and he stated that those selected for the AF Band were automatically jumped to TSgt/E6. I don't know if this is the case with this woman as the band she is performing with was not identified in the article (that I saw). The Chief did mention that most members had a masters in music and such. Dating myself but this was around the time Throm Thurman made the comment that there was something wrong when we were paying a trumpet player more to re-enlist than a ICBM technician.

One of the issues here is simply that lower enlisted personnel won't know the difference between an E-6 the put in the time and earned that rank and someone like this who was given her rank because she has a certain skill set. They'll just see rank. It's a very flawed system.

Ridiculous. There are time in grade/rank requirements.

She didn't earn this ... Please tell me this is a joke ..

Rank is something that is earned by time and experience. It's a minimum TIS of 6 months to get to E-2. If you get to be an E-6 straight out of basic, where is the prestige of being an NCO? So she's musically talented and a spot for a musician's job just happened to be open? I've seen a lot of musically talented soldiers who raised unit morale from within. Most of them are lower enlisted and hold an MOS that actually pulls its weight for the military. They need a special MOS solely for musicians? Okay, I can understand that. But how the hell do you climb up in rank so damn fast without doing any real work? If and when you re-class, how would that workout?

It is my understanding that it's the same/similar in the Navy, that making MU1 is very quick. However, I have also been given to understand that making Chief is next to impossible. This is a small rate for very talented and skilled professionals; many band members play multiple instruments and/or are very accomplished vocalists. And they ought to be; almost every military scenario where music is played by the band is one of some gravity. The band had better know what there doing. Because of that, as others have alluded to: higher pay is what it takes to entice the right group of people to join