My Promotion

This will probably make you sick but they made us become E-5s when I was in the Navy. This was in 1979 and I still had a year left. They cut the re-enlistment bonus' in half for my rate--Operations Specialist. We're the squirrels you see in the dark room (Combat Information Center)in the movies. So they had a shortage of E5's in my rate since they would normally be people who had re-enlisted but didn't. They barely had people re-enlisting before they cut the bonus.

There was a written test of 200 multiple choice questions and I had just gotten off a 12 hour watch. Had barely fallen asleep when they woke me up and told me to report to the mess deck to take the E5 exam. I wasn't really in the mood for this little surprise so I just went down the line on the test: A B C D A B C D... Amazing. I scored an 88 on the test, imagine that! Even more amazing, everyone else scored an 88 on the test, what a coincidence! So I was an E5 with hardly 3 years in. But so was everyone else, so I was still hunting down "ghost-turds" (I think you army guys call them "dust-bunnies") when the ship was port.

Congratulations on your promotion! Sorry you had to jump through so many hoops to get it. Different times I suppose, or different branches or both, I don't know. But congratulations.

Congratulations Trooper!

As a retired servicemember to an active member - well done. My son will be coming home this Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). He is just finishing his security forces training and this will be his first time home since enlisting.

Proud of you guys.

Hi and CONGRATULATIONS, I missed it too, from an Aussie ex serviceman. (RAAF Armourer)

Way to go! Congra! Sometime, you should share the pictures of your medals.

As a retired E-7 I know the feeling of being promoted. Congrats, and thanks for your service to this Great Country.