Navy to advance based on time in service

[spr1975wshs]

When I was in, I picked up E-4 (3rd Class) out of A school.
I was picked up for Advanced First Term Avionics (AFTA)and had to sign up to a 6 year term.
We were called "Rent a Crows".

My Mrs. is a member of the Association of Old Crows. She did a lot of work as an electronic warfare engineer during her years in the USAF.

I graduated USAF basic in the fall of 1983 as an E-3. I had an Associate's, plus they counted my 4 years of Air Force ROTC during my failed attempt at getting a bachelor's at Norwich, the military college in Vermont. I was issued a DD214 for my active duty time for training at ROTC summer camp.

 

[glhs837]

Hmmm, went to boot camp, in Oct 83. Got E2 "meritoriously" out of there. Then picked up E-3 for time served while in my year plus long training track. (did eight weeks for AO, six weeks Aircrew, two weeks SERE, then a full year at VP-31 for both ground and flying AO tracks. Took the exam for E-4 before first deployment in 1985 and put on E-4 halfway through that in the summer of 1985. So for me it was a bit more than 1.5 years TIS.

They offered all of us AO Aircrew volunteers "Rent A Crow", but most us declined due to the fact that we couldnt "put it on" until we actually graduated as Aircrew. So in my case, I would have siged for six years for a crow I couldnt wear until six months before I could take the test anyway.

So wat this means really is that E-4 just became a participation trophy, not a thing you earned by studying and achiving.