In the Navy Staff NCO is considered E-7 (the same in the Army I think).
You do not have to be a total brownnose to make First Class since it is based on a test along with fitness reports. In other words if you are not a brownose and get an average evaluation grade you still can score high enough to make E-6 on the test, which is sort of under your control. In other words if you study hard enough you can get promoted if you have a less that stellar political career.

The E-7 rank however is determined by a selection committee of E-9s who may or may not know who you are. Here you basically are judged on your lifetime experience and if they know who you are i.e. political acumen (or lack of it). Here quotas play a role too. It is much more difficult to make E-7 than E-6. I never made it.

Once I did not make it because the board felt that although there were about 10 slots for Chief vacant none of the remaining candidates (me included) were worthy. That pissed me off!

WaPo's Op Ed writers take on Bergdahl's release. A rare consensus.

Dionne http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...y.html?hpid=z2

Parker http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...d9e_story.html

:rolleyes:Even Krauthammer at his bloviating best. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...f0a_story.html

Lane http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...f0a_story.html

I retired at E-5 Sgt after 20+ years of honorable svc, well over a decade and a half in grade due to my MOS being blocked for advancement. I liked my mos a lot and didn't want to recruit or DI to gain rank because I would have then lost my "fit" as a person with high functioning autism and been discharged for unsuitibilty for duty. I'm the only person I know that retired at E-5 without reduction for cause.

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A good article and interesting perspective IMO on the Bergdahl situation.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Secur...ive-wars-video

Here's an article written 2 years ago with a lot of details on Bergdahl, including the fact that the negotiations with the Taliban have been known by John McCain for over 2 years now.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...f-war-20120607

fubar. :(

In the Navy you could retire as an E-5 up until about 8-10 years ago when they made it impossible for them to retire. Of course those E-5s who had joined before a certain date were grandfathered but those guys are nearly gone now. Some Navy rates were really hard to move up in, such as Ship's Serviceman and conventional Machinest Mate.

But of course, Colbert nailed it.

Regards,

D-Ray

Saw that Colbert segment. I haven't watched Fox for ages. I hadn't quite realized how blatantly propaganda-scripted they have become. They're worse than the old '700 Club.'

Sgt. Bergdahl back in the states. He's undergoing reintegration at Ft. Sam Houston in Texas.

Welcome home young man.

I'd like to be a fly on the wall during that!

Thanks for the link!

Yeah FOX is really awful.