There will be 1,350 Regular Army promotions to the ranks of sergeant through sergeant major in September, but the monthly authorization does not include any advancements to sergeant first class.
The fiscal 2014 E-7 list, which originally contained 5,446 names, was completed in August. A new list generated by a board that met in June is pending release.
The September forecast does authorize 25 promotions to master sergeant and 36 to sergeant major. The promotions will leave 1,040 names on the fiscal 2015 master sergeant list and 389 names on the 2015 E-9 roster.
September cutoff scores authorize 928 promotions to sergeant and 361 to staff sergeant. The promotions will go to soldiers in a pool of 12,487 promotable specialists and 13,761 promotable sergeants.
Additional promotions would have been authorized for both sergeant and staff sergeant if soldiers in several chronically short-handed specialties called STAR MOSs were boarded by their units. Soldiers in these shortage MOS will be promoted within weeks after being placed on the service-wide recommended lists for E-5 and E-6.
Shortage specialties at the rank of sergeant include the field artillery MOS of 13F (fire support specialist) and 13M (MLRS and HIMARS crewmember); 19K (Abrams tank crewman); 35L (counterintelligence agent); the public affairs specialties of 46Q (public affairs specialist) and 46R (broadcast specialist); and the medical MOS of 68B (orthopedic specialist), 68F (physical therapy specialist), 68L (occupational therapist), 68U (ear, nose and throat specialist) and 68Y (eye specialist).
Shortage MOS for staff sergeants includes 13R (firefinder radar operator), 15Y (AH-64 armament, electrical and avionics repairer), 18B (Special Forces weapons sergeant), 38B (civil affairs), 51C (contracting NCO) and 94T (Avenger system repairer).
In announcing September promotions, the Human Resources Command noted the following:
• Units throughout the Army are updating soldier training records in the Army's electronic military personnel office, or eMilPO, using online training course certificates as supporting documents, which has resulted in some soldiers receiving erroneous promotion point totals for advancements to sergeant and staff sergeant
To receive promotion points for resident military training, courses must be listed in the Army Training Requirements and Resources System and in the soldier's ATTRS record, according to HRC's promotion branch.
Any promotion obtained with erroneous documentation will result in an administrative reduction in rank.
• Units are required to ensure that soldiers who are placed on the sergeant and staff sergeant list after making the monthly cutoff score have an updated up to date Army Physical Fitness Test on their promotion effective date. The date a soldier makes the cutoff score is not the same as the effective date.
Additionally, units are required to make sure soldiers are not flagged, barred from re-enlistment and have met the Structured Self-Development requirements for their new rank (SSD-1 for sergeant and SSD-2 for staff sergeant) on the promotion effective date.
• Promotion boards must be conducted between the 20th of the month preceding the board month and no later than the fourth day of the board month. Boards that have presidents in the rank of first sergeant and below, or that are conducted outside the eligibility dates, will be invalid.
