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View Full Version : Promoted in IRR, and it feels wrong



Jofus
08-23-16, 09:02 AM
I left active duty in 2015 as a Sergeant with a little over 3 years TIG, and I was recently promoted to Staff Sergeant in the IRR. It seems strange to refer to myself as a Staff Sergeant --not that I do this often-- but sometimes people ask "Hey what is/was your rank in the Marines?" It feels wrong to me to say "I'm a Staff Sergeant" considering I don't really feel like I earned it. Anybody have this experience? What's your opinion on the whole IRR promotion thing?

irpat54
08-23-16, 09:55 AM
you earned your rank whether it be IRR or full Active Duty, that is a great accomplishment, don't ever forget that,,

Congratulations SSgt. Simper Fi..

Tennessee Top
08-23-16, 10:02 AM
Will you change the chevrons on all your shirts/blouses?

silveradomick
08-23-16, 11:39 AM
I picked up Sgt in the IRR, about a month after EAS. Like you, I felt pretty weird about it. A few months later I went to the birthday ball for my old unit. I posed this question to my former Plt Sgt who is the epitome of what I consider an excellent Marine to be. His answer was to tell me if I showed up to the ball in blues and wasn't wearing Sgt chevrons he'd be p!ssed at me for being out of uniform. He said "you did a Sgt's job ten times over when we were in, you rate that sh!t and then some". That alleviated any awkwardness for me.

madsox
08-23-16, 12:55 PM
Joe, you earned the rocker - I was a reservist my whole time, didn't ever get promoted while in IRR, but I had the same feelings for a long time. "Oh, you're/were are Marine? Yeah, but I was just a Peacetime Part-timer" eventually turned into "Oh you were/are a Marine? Yep."

You're a SSgt now, brother, no worries.

s/f

oldtop
08-24-16, 09:25 AM
OUTSTANDING Job, Staff Sergeant of MARINES.... consider it an incentive to stick around long enough to pin on a few more, and retire....

gkmoz
08-24-16, 07:11 PM
OUTSTANDING Job, Staff Sergeant of MARINES.... consider it an incentive to stick around long enough to pin on a few more, and retire....

:thumbup::thumbup:

Jofus
08-25-16, 08:59 AM
Will you change the chevrons on all your shirts/blouses?

Good question. I'm not sure if I'll spend the time/money to do so. I don't really have plans to wear the uniform again, unless called up from the IRR. I work as a contractor for the *bleh* Army, but I figured I'll probably wear mini-medals and a tuxedo to any formal military events.


OUTSTANDING Job, Staff Sergeant of MARINES.... consider it an incentive to stick around long enough to pin on a few more, and retire....

Thanks, Top!


Joe, you earned the rocker...
You're a SSgt now, brother, no worries.


Semper Fi, brother. Guess I should change the avatar!

MunkyVsRobot
09-04-16, 08:58 AM
From what ive been told if you were to come back into the service i dont believe you would rate the rank you were promoted to in the IRR, though i do not speak from experience. Congrats on the promotion though.

Old Marine
09-04-16, 10:13 AM
Spent 10 years as a Sgt. That is Buck Sgt, Acting Sgt, Sgt E-5 and then I heard that if you went to D.I. School and became a Drill Instructor you could move up in rank. Finally became a SSgt and then moved up to GySgt. When I enlisted MSgt was the top enlisted rank and when I made GySgt it was the same as the old MSgt so I made my goal. Have been drawing that retirement pay since 1973 and its not overwhelming, but the medical makes up for it. Would do it again in a heartbeat, just not in these days.

advanced
09-04-16, 12:07 PM
Back in the day I made NCO (Cpl) in 14 months and I felt awkward as I had been in the Nam less than 2 months. We had lost a lot of NCO's the month before.

About 4-5 months later I became one of the senior NCO's as we had lost a lot more. I had good timing.

FoxtrotOscar
09-04-16, 07:41 PM
From what ive been told if you were to come back into the service i dont believe you would rate the rank you were promoted to in the IRR, though i do not speak from experience. Congrats on the promotion though.

For the most part that information you spoke of is correct...

If you go into active from Reserve, you will lose 1 rank...

madsox
09-05-16, 02:12 PM
For the most part that information you spoke of is correct...

If you go into active from Reserve, you will lose 1 rank...
That's how I remember it too, except that a Corporal won't be busted to Lance (you stay an NCO, but would lose time in grade).

I think you used to also keep the SNCO status too, so a GySgt would be "reset" as a SSgt, but a SSgt wouldn't be dropped to E-5. Lose TIG again, but that was many rains ago and I could be wrong to start with...