Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/Time to advance to rank of Sergeant

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Expert: Rod Powers - 10/10/2006


Question
My Son is anxious to start a career in the Military.  He has been told many things by many people.  I have a couple basic questions:
Initial Rank.  Will the fact that he is an Eagle Scout and that he will have completed 4 years of High School ROTC effect his initial rank.
With the above assumption, how long will it generally take to move up to the rank of Sergeant?
Thanks,
Michael Moore

Answer
Hi Michael,

For which service? Each of the services have different rules for advanced rank. For details, you may wish to read my article, "What the Recruiter Never Told You," at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter.htm most especially Part 4, which talks about enlistment incentives.

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com

Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard

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Rod Powers

Expertise

Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.

Experience

Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.

Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).

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