Chandler Makes Courses Necessary for Promotion

A couple of deployments and a big fitness test score will no longer guarantee your next promotion. New rules and requirements will ensure promotions not only acknowledge past performance but also recognize future potential — and will steer soldiers through the processes by which stronger leaders are made.

Pinning on another stripe will require more schooling and leader development. Special duty as a recruiter or drill sergeant will better your chances as combat deployments diminish and all things become equal.

“As an Army, and me personally, we are committed to the semicentralized promotion system,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond Chandler. “But you can’t just stay static and say what happened 10 years ago is good for today. Expectations change. We give soldiers the opportunity to achieve those standards, and those that meet and exceed those standards will be promoted.”

Structured Self-Development brings the biggest change. There are no more excuses for putting off these five 80-hour courses. Every soldier must complete his respective SSD level before attending courses under the Noncommissioned Officer Education System.

Perhaps you didn’t want to go to school anyway. Chances are, you know a soldier who found a way to avoid school and still get another stripe. No more. Promotion will soon be impossible without completing the required courses.

As of Oct. 1, junior soldiers will be required to complete SSD-1 before they attend the Warrior Leader Course.

In addition, soldiers must complete:

• SSD-2 before attending the Advanced Leader Course.

• SSD-3 before attending the Senior Leader Course.

• SSD-4 before attending the Sergeants Major Course.

• SSD-5 after completing the Sergeants Major Course.

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