The Marine Corps Is Changing How It Promotes Sergeants and Staff Sergeants. Here's How

If it reduces the churn and gets more experienced folks out there, that's good. If they lose more to being held back, that will be a problem. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out

As it should be... young Marines getting rank to quick was a problem when I was on that side... they don’t really get the “leadership” portion of the rank... and they should definitely do the same in the Army

This should have happened years ago. Not so long ago, most Marines didn't make Cpl until the last year of their enlistment and leaving as a LCpl was very common. A four year Sergeant was extremely rare; particularly in combat arms. What we have now are a lot of Cpls and Sgts with LCpl ability and technical proficiency. I remember going through the Army's BNCOC as Cpl with six other Marine Corporals and one Marine Sergeant. Our Army classmates were all Sgts and SSgts. Some of the Army Sergeants had been in about two years or so and didn't know squat. One of the SSgts wasn't even a howitzer section chief. We were all Section Chiefs or Squad Leaders. Promoting people quickly doesn't make the Corps better, it just makes it more expensive.