Most time in grade as an E-4 in this group

I understand your trouble, more or less. I made my PFC a month before it was mandatory, and I was pinned SPC a month before it was mandatory. I was by no means a bad Soldier, in fact my PSG at one point in time told me that I was not allowed to volunteer for anything anymore because some of the other joes in my platoon were dirt bags and I was his best Soldier. I made my 5 in 5 years, and it was a battle for me every step of the way. I was an E-5 (P) for almost 2 years before I made points, and the thing that saved me there was being Distinguished Honor Graduate at ALC (112 points is awesome, on top of the AAM and 2 COAs I got along with it) so you just need to buckle down and improve where you can. Whether it is correspondence courses, PT, Weapons Qual, whatever you can. Awards will come, but if you start doing some volunteer work the MOVSM will help.

If you need some help, advice, or anything, please Inbox me. I will be more than happy to help however I can. Believe me when I say I know how real the struggle can be.

I came in as a SPC in 2007, and was set to go to the board during my first deployment in '08. However, I got selected for OCS and my BN CSM decided that I didn't need to be promoted if I was going to OCS. I could not complete OCS due to medical reasons. During my second deployment in '11 my PSG kept me from the board for no apparent reason. When we got back from A'Stan, we got a new 1SG who stopped all the BS of holding Soldiers back from going to the board. I got picked-up for SGT in 2012 after 5 years. Luckily I picked up SSG only 19 months later.

I think all the SPC time helped me to become a better Soldier as well as see both good and bad leadership. I tell people that I learned the most about leadership from the bad leaders, because I promised myself that I would never be that "leader" who failed his/her Soldiers.

I had over four years at E4 (even after a combat deployment) because as it was explained to me, I needed two consecutive positive 90 day courselings from my squad leader to qualify for the PLDC list maintained by my company. This sounds good in priciple but it sucked in practice. In the first year I went through THREE squad leaders due to DEROSs, compassionate treansfers and reassignements. I finally complained to the 1SG, and he tagged me as a whiner. Needless to say after getting kicked in the teeth a number of times my concern for unit cohesivness kinda dropped. When I FINALLY was scheduled for PLDC (at Bad Tolz of all places) Desert Shield happened and my unit ended my detail to community and I still missed out. Eventhough I was boarded after Desert Storm, I was never sent to PLDC and was RIFFED in '93 still at E-4. SIDEBAR: During my final out brief they asked me if I wated to finish out my time in the NG or RES - I replied with a VERY bad word.