Myth Buster: Does it hinder your chances of being picked up if you do not have something in your military education every year?

CW2 (Join to see) No it doesn't hinder your chances. There are just times in a career where it is not possible to do it. There were many years when I was not able to get any military education. Boards look at what units you were assigned to and other circumstances which would hinder you from getting any military education (deployments, exercises, NTC, ETC)

Don't know about the Army, but I attended 4.5 years of professional and technical training. In my spare time completed over three dozen correspondent courses. Advanced to E-9 at 18 years. Evaluations of top 1/5 % didn't hurt. In summary, any efforts in improving your education WILL help.

I agree with that line of thinking but I'd take it a step further. If you're going to go to an MOS immaterial course you should also expect to work in that capacity. For example, if you go to the EOL course or the retention NCO course, work those jobs at the company or BN level. As a leader I'd much rather send my troops to those courses and have them work in that role. Education is good, but adding experience to education is great.