Words to Live By

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid it will never begin.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Adding On The Stripes!

So a few days ago, I told you all about our son Rex's award. Well, Eric called me from England today, and he just made Staff Sergeant! Woo-hoo!
According to Wikipedia:
Staff Sergeant (SSgt) is E-5 in the U.S. Air Force, just above Senior Airman and below Technical Sergeant. It is the Air Force's first non-commissioned officer rank as well as the first Air Force rank to which promotion is on a competitive basis.
Senior airmen are considered for promotion if they attain that rank on or before February 1st of that testing year. This is so that they will have a minimum of 6 months time-in-grade before the first promotion date of that testing year, however in a normal career progression one achieves this grade after 5 to 7 years in service.
Staff sergeants are expected to be technically proficient and function as first-line supervisors within a workcenter. After being selected for promotion senior airmen must attend Airman Leadership School, which teaches them basic leadership and how to write performance reports. The term of address is Staff Sergeant or Sergeant.
Eric, congratulations, son! You've earned it! Big D is so proud I think his chest is going to split wide open! :) So add those stripes, baby! E-5 Wooo-hooooo! Yeeeeehaw!!!

14 comments:

Andrea said...

Good Job!! I know you all are just bustin' with pride!!

B.B. said...

Wow! Congratulations! You and Big D. have so many reasons to be proud of your children! And it doesn't happen by accident, you should be proud of yourselves as well for raising them to be so wonderful!

FLHX_Dave said...

My Dad served in the Air Force. Awesome! Congrats. I would be annoying the hell out of people due to my excessive bragging if I was Big D. I'm sure the birds (chicks) in England are going nuts over him...oh, was I suppose to say that? I really think this is awesome. Proud you should be.

Ann said...

Andrea: Yes, we are totally busting! :)

BB: Thanks! I guess we did ok, huh?

Dave: Thank you. Yeah, you probably shouldn't have said that: Eric is married, and his wife is also serving in the USAF with him in England! That's ok, though. They're happy! :)

Mike said...

Congratulations all around. Both of your boys are doing great in the military. Hopefully they'll be running the whole show in no time at all!

Dean "D-Day" said...

That's awesome! Congrats to you and your sons. You should be very proud of them and yourselves.

"Joker" said...

Congrats to Eric and to the Proud Parents! He outranks both me and my old man!

My Dad was in the AF back in the 50's, stationed in Prestwick, Scotland. I think he only made Airman 2nd Class during his short stint. In the ARNG, I never got any higher than E-4, although that may have had something to do with me telling my platoon Sgt (an E-7) to go fuck himself a couple of times. Oh well, he was an asshole, and I was young :)

Actually, they tried to bribe me into re-enlisting by offering me Sgt's stripes, but I told the First Sergeant to stick them up his ass. He just gave me this really pissed off look and said, "A simple NO would have been fine!" I guess I seem to have a problem with authority, LOL!

I'm glad to see your son knows how to play the game and is doing well. I wish I'd have been that smart when I was a kid.

Queen B said...

CONGRATS! That is awesome!

Paula said...

Congratulations! How exciting for him and the whole family!

Kim Thomas said...

This is so awesome!!!! Congratulations!!!!

Anonymous said...

So you finally caught up with me huh? We'll see he gets E-6 first!

Veronnica said...

Congrats Eric! Big D and Ann, you must be soooo proud!

Shannon said...

Well now D can't tell Eric he has to salute a commanding officer when Mike is around.I'm happy for him, do you know when he goes to ALS? And do they have it in England or are they going to send him all the way to Texas for the 3 weeks of training?

Anywho CONGRATS Eric!

Jinjer said...

Congrats Eric!!!