“You may need to take a couple years in the Individual Ready Reserve and maybe look forward to coming back once your family situation has changed,” Lombardo said. And they’re asking leadership to be more flexible about when soldiers conduct necessary training, trying to work around their civilian commitments.įinally, if a soldier is straining with the civilian-soldier juggle, they might need to step back for a bit. Lombardo said that the reserve is working with commands to cease changing training schedules because that can cause friction with civilian employers and families. “We’re looking to get first sergeants in the grade of E-8 down at the company level,” he said.īut the work of building mid- to upper-level enlisted leadership isn’t all sticks, there are some carrots. Soldiers might also see more senior NCOs at the lower levels than they’re used to. Lombardo said that they’ve worked out locked-in school seats for the promotions they’ve planned with the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. That’s important because all of those ranks will need school seats.
The semi-centralized promotion system supports filling authorized enlisted positions with the best qualified Soldiers and is dependent on realizing promotions when Soldiers meet the announced cutoff scores. Leaders plan to pause once they hit 80%, and then re-evaluate progress. AR 600-8-19, Chapter 3 governs the Army’s Sergeant and Staff Sergeant semi-centralized promotion system. So even though many reserve soldiers do longer schools in two phases, they’ll have had to complete the second phase within the 12-month period.Ī little higher up the rank structure, the Army Reserve is looking to fill 90-95% of its staff sergeant and sergeant first class slots. They’ll also need to have a vacancy within their official commute area and a reserve school seat assigned for leaders courses and other MOS-specific requirements. To keep that rank on their uniform, new NCOs and captains must complete their required military education within 12 months of being promoted, Lombardo added.