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NCO promotions near record for Oct.

Non-commissioned officer promotions will approach near-record levels in October, with advancements to sergeant through sergeant major topping the 7,400-level for only the fourth time in 20 years.

October cutoff scores and senior NCO sequence numbers issued for the active component in late September call for 22 promotions to sergeant major, 258 to master sergeant, 903 to sergeant first class, 1,977 to staff sergeant and 4,260 to sergeant.

The 7,420 total is the biggest since October 2008 when 7,810 soldiers were promoted, but about 1,000 fewer than in July 2004 when the service was in the midst of a force expansion that eventually would add 65,000 soldiers to the active component.

The 7,420 promotions authorized for the first month of fiscal 2010 would seem to bode well for an NCO promotion program that was stagnant for much of 2009 because the number of soldiers available for promotions exceeded requirements.

The imbalance was caused by the success of the Grow the Army program which resulted in the service reaching its objective end-strength of 547,400 soldiers in January, two years ahead of schedule.

A downturn in monthly promotions during February-July followed the growth spurt, because personnel strength out-paced the creation of new maneuver brigades and other units.

“As we have grown the Army over the past few years, the demand for NCOs, which initially fueled large promotion numbers, simply slowed down,” Gerald Purcell, an enlisted promotion policy specialist in the Office of the G-1, earlier said.

As the force began stabilizing in the fourth quarter of 2009, promotions returned to normal levels, averaging 5,600 per month in August and September.

That compares to a monthly average of 2,175 for February-July.

Purcell said it is Army policy to man its NCO authorizations to 100 percent by grade.

“We have continued to do that, and there [was] no conscious decision to under-promote or short promotions to save money,” Purcell said of the promotion slowdown earlier this year.

A Sept. 30 accounting of personnel strength shows there are 552,425 soldiers on active duty, some 5,000 more than the Grow the Army goal of 547,400.

While that overage normally would be a management problem, Congress is evaluating plans to temporarily add 30,000 soldiers to the Army over the next two to three years, which in turn should have a positive effect on promotions, according to personnel officials.

The promotion plan for October is especially robust at the rank of sergeant, where the authorization for 4,260 promotions is the largest since December 1992, when 5,472 soldiers were advanced to E-5.

October promotions to sergeant will go to soldiers in a pool of 21,331 promotable corporals and specialists.

The staff sergeant authorization for 1,977 promotions also is unusually large, but still about 400 fewer than in August.

Promotions to E-6 will go to soldiers in a pool of 18,751 promotable sergeants.

There would be additional promotions to sergeant and staff sergeant if soldiers in shortage MOS called STAR specialties were recommended and boarded for promotion by their chain of command.

As of mid-September, there were 17 STAR MOS for sergeant, and 15 for staff sergeant.

Related reading:

• October enlisted promotion digest

• October cutoff scores