I get BAH too?

[Supersapper]

I just like to look up these threads from "way back".

I am entering my Below Zone year for............... wait for it...................

MAJOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm totally NOT going to pick up major for FY25, but I'll at least have knocked out my board file for such, and will highly likely make it for 2026.

After my 27 months of company command time (as 1LT) I went into a defensive career mentality and totally went after straight forward staff positions right before I became a CPT. My CPT time has been very tame. Oh mind you I picked up two ARCOM's as a TPU CPT and two top block evals, but I've learned how to stay out of the kill zone which I was square in the center of as a Company Commander.

Now........... there are UPSIDES!!!!!! to not getting picked up for MAJ this FY.

I signed a 3 year promise to say for a bonus of $10K. It expires this year. So I can renew it in the beginning of FY26.

Now, in order to get said bonus one has to be a CPT or a MAJ and have completed their next PME for promotion (which I have to make the next rank of MAJ).

If I pick up MAJ now, this year then I will not be qualified for the bonus. I'd have to enroll and knock out the school for LTC, which is going to take quite a while and I'll miss the bonus.

If I'm not picked up early, welp........... I can sneak in getting the bonus again as I'd still be a CPT with the next level PME already done, and my bonus will expire before I'd be selected for MAJ FY26.

Wow................... this will be my last promotion whenever it comes. I'll hit 60 before I realistically would be up for LTC. I can see the dim light at the end of the tunnel and I know where it's going.

Snoop Dog!

How's it going? Long time no hear :P Congrats on BZ for MAJ. Not sure if I told you, but I picked up LTC last year in July (JUL 2023) but I prob won't make COL because like you, I'm just getting too old. I'll be up for COL, but they'll never give it to me because all my colleagues are 15 years my junior. :P

You should be good for the bonus. Only about 3% or so pick up MAJ on BZ looks. Typically, you have to just about walk on water to get them. How did you manage to get ILE pre-MAJ? That's some pretty awesome stuff getting that knocked out.

Sapper

[Snoopy47]

Snoop Dog!

How's it going? Long time no hear :P Congrats on BZ for MAJ. Not sure if I told you, but I picked up LTC last year in July (JUL 2023) but I prob won't make COL because like you, I'm just getting too old. I'll be up for COL, but they'll never give it to me because all my colleagues are 15 years my junior. :P

You should be good for the bonus. Only about 3% or so pick up MAJ on BZ looks. Typically, you have to just about walk on water to get them. How did you manage to get ILE pre-MAJ? That's some pretty awesome stuff getting that knocked out.

Sapper

No, maybe I miswrote your you misread. I only have CCC done. If I do not promote this year I could renew the bonus because I would be a CPT with PME complete for MAJ.

If I do pick up a BZ promotion I would be a new MAJ without the next level PME done and I could not renew the bonus until I knock ILE out as a MAJ.

No one is getting ILE as a CPT.

But I cannot renew the retention bonus until DEC 2025. At which if I was a MAJ then I don't have PME. If I don't pick up early then I'd be a CPT with still done PME.

I made a mistake. I didn't do CCC as a 1LT. I wanted the extra $500 I got with CPT pay when I took CCC, but I could have already renewed the $10K retention bonus by now if I did.

Those reading.......... lesson learned........... take all military education opportunities when the window opens ASAP. If you put them off you don't know what advantages you might be putting off (the biggest for example, imagine WW3 and then HRC just promotes everyone based on what is in iPerms just to rank up chain of commands to take charge of all the new recruits).

[Supersapper]

Ahhh...I thought when I wrote it that it was too good to be true...although, I have heard of CPT(P)s getting into ILE. There was one in my ILE class.

Agreed on the PME class as soon as available. When I was deployed to Kosovo in 2005, I had a SSG squad leader who was a defrocked CPT. Seems he actually chose not to do CCC until it was too late, so they took his commission when he eventually couldn't promote.

I'm curious...how do you get to renew the bonus? I thought those were one time things for retention as a CPT? If you get to MAJ, don't you lose the ability to do that?

[Snoopy47]

I might have to read the bonus documents again.
1) AGR are not qualified for it
2) Mil Techs who's job depends on being in service are not qualified for it
3) Here's the kicker, those on the NEW!!!!!!!! pension system are NOT qualified for it, since part of that new system has built in retention points and pay outs (not a bonus, it's part of the plan).

OK, those who are open to getting it have to be:
1) CPT or MAJ
2) Have the next level PME already done for the their next rank. The USAR wants to make sure you can get to the next rank (i.e gt kicked out for not taking PME while still on the bonus).
3) Be on the UMR in a PRIMARY slot for your qualified Branch/MOS (so I couldn't take an 01A slot for example or be on excess or be the secondary slit for a billet, I'd have to currently be in a 90A slot)
4) NOT BE currently on contract for said 3 year retention bonus.
5) Not be up against 20 years inside of that 3 years.

That's my understanding.
So once my bonus expires, I should be able to sign another one. Otherwise, I'd have to knock out ILE ASAP, and sign a bonus before I get past year 17. Then I could sign it for MAJ once ILE is done, but then I'm also thinking about some 01A positions I'm interested in, in which case I'd want to possibly pass on the bonus. $10K is nice, but is it so nice I want to narrow my ability to bounce around positions and limit my ability to maneuver around my Civilian obligations.

CCC..............
I totally lucked out. I got CPT in SEP 2020. Knocked out the On-Line portion and scheduled to take Phase 1 and 2 back to back in the spring. I totally expected to go to Virginia, would have had to Air BnB a house, and brought my whole family out (because orders between 1 and 2 would not provide housing, so I'd be screwed).

Then COVID shut down all in person schooling for CCC, and there was a very narrow window where the school house was doing every thing on-line (MS Teams). There was two months there where Phase 1 and 2 could be done on-line, and I managed to get both of them in that way. Had I been left or right in either direction one of them would have been in person.

So yea, CCC was done entirely from Fort Bedroom. Because of On-Line CCC our 1059's DO NOT have our class rankings. We simply got a Go or No-Go.

Oh, now that I realize that, I suppose that non ranked 1059 will hurt my chances for a BZ promotion against those with rankings. Oh well.

Ahhh...I thought when I wrote it that it was too good to be true...although, I have heard of CPT(P)s getting into ILE. There was one in my ILE class.

Agreed on the PME class as soon as available. When I was deployed to Kosovo in 2005, I had a SSG squad leader who was a defrocked CPT. Seems he actually chose not to do CCC until it was too late, so they took his commission when he eventually couldn't promote.

I'm curious...how do you get to renew the bonus? I thought those were one time things for retention as a CPT? If you get to MAJ, don't you lose the ability to do that?

[sonofeugene]

What is BAH, BCT, AIT? The use of acronyms is way over done.

[Snoopy47]

What is BAH, BCT, AIT? The use of acronyms is way over done.

This is a safe space is it not "Calgunners in Service" 😁

BCT = Basic Training
BAH = Basic Allowance for Housing
AIT = Advanced Individual Training

All the services call them something slightly differently and all the Army and I guess USAF guys should understand them easier than Navy and Marines.

Basically.......................... I couldn't find my old original thread from 2011 where I posted about enlisting. So I fired this one up again.

I get a kick out of looking back at where I was, and where I expected to end up back then.

I had written off being an Officer (that rug was pulled out from under me, and it was either "shat or get off the pot" with my recruiter and I had 1 week left before I'd be too old to even enlist), and just for the sake of it enlisted as a 38 year old with a Masters Degree and decided to just let life walk all over me. Lord knows I had my share of young NCO's with only High School more than happy they could boss me around.

I'll peck around on this thread for a little while more. I'm sure I'll fire up another ancient thread when I hit retirement.

I'm enjoying having been "that guy" on the internet who thought it was going to be an officer, pretty much had it doused, found a sliver of a window of opportunity and made it happen, and from where I sit now it is not so unreasonable to be able to maneuver myself into a Battalion Command. I have also learned I can still get the rank without the headache anyway.

*************

As far as all parties here are involved and how the service ties into our interests in fire arms. I'm still more than happy to host "Postal Matches" at Sunnyvale Rod and Gun.

Basically........... shoot the course of fire from the Army Marksmanship Program of "Postal Matches" with your own rifle of choice so long as it is Center Fire, and if you meet the standard I will write you a Memorandum for Record on my unit Letterhead and sign it with my CAC ID.

I don't care which service you are in. What you do with that letter is up to you.

USAR NCO's could eat that up, and use said letter for their Annual Evaluations.

For anyone that was willing enough to go through and shoot all the Postal Courses of fire I'll submit them in for an AAM (Army Achievement Medal, or corresponding service AM) to their chain of command.

For anyone willing to do this...........
1) We do it on our own time
2) We use our own firearms
3) We use our own ammo
4) Sunnyvale doesn't charge active service members with CAC ID's
5) You'd be at the range as my guest and we could get around "public range day rules".

You'd just have to connect with me, and show up to Sunnyvale Rod and Gun as if you were going to just shoot your own stuff anyway.

Then anyone that does this, then I would get brownie points for my Annual Evaluation for "coordinating" this training that meets the standard of a Army Postal Match (I've done it twice now).

[sonofeugene]

Thanks for your clarification.

I served with the army in ‘71 - ‘74. If I’d thought harder, I would have gotten AIT. But not the others. I guess my military service is too far in the past now. It’s been over 50 years.

[CrazyCobraManTim]

Welp here comes another Necromonger thread....

Gentlemen - I *HATE* to hear your stories. I have a few family members (USMC) who got "stuck" at a terminal rank - despite having the ability (or far beyond) being able to accomplishment and master the next level(s) of rank.....

1983-1989 active and then 2010 to 2023 reserve (mulitiple).

I've heard too many stories of people - others - who did the "right" thing in combat....only to be punished, blackmarked and and perhaps sent out.

Guess those who've also experienced such treatment will sound off......

LT Out