I am a SPC. I've been in the army for a little over 5 years now and I won't be ETSing until October 2011. I've been to the promotion board, and passed. My problem is that I have no desire to move on to the rank of Sergeant, and its really starting to create some problems for me. My question is this: When it boils down to it, do I have a right to refuse to add points to my 3355? I'm aware that I can be barred from reenlisting for not making progress toward the next rank, and I can accept that. I enjoy working as a specialist, and I don't have a shred of patience for being in charge of other soldiers. I don't enjoy taking an 'ass-chewing' for other people's mistakes and I don't deal well with that type of stress. I'm getting heavy pressure from my NCO support channel to get promoted, even though I don't want to be (which seems awefully counter-intuitive to me) and I've even been threatened with reduction in grade. There's also alot of 'politics' in my unit which honestly, I'd rather be a victim of than a participant in. I'm sure it seems like I'm a 'shammer' or what have you, but I don't hesitate to share my knowledge with my peers, I've had nothing but good counselings, and if I wasn't doing a good job I don't think I'd be recieving so much pressure to get promoted. I just don't want it, and would like to know if I have the right to NOT pursue promotion. If anyone has the following information, I'd very much appreciate it:

a) short answer, whether I'm perfectly able to continue being a specialist without UCMJ punishment
b) which reg covers this

Thanks in advance.

You can decline a promotion with no UMCJ action. This is taken from AR 600-8-19 Enlisted Promotions and Reductions.

1–24. Declination of promotion

a. A promotion is effective as of the date on the promotion instrument.
b. A Soldier may submit a memorandum of declination any time after being recommended for promotion. If the Soldier has been promoted, the declination memorandum will be sent through command channels to the PROM not later than 30 days (60 days for TPU) after the effective date of promotion.

However, I suggest you read the rest to determine if this is right for you.

Thank you SSG Utley, this is exactly what I was looking for. I'll look into it further.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-Kay...

First of all, aren't you contradicting a little with a name like SPCIC???

Second of all, IF you never wanted to be an NCO, just why the h*ll did you even go to the promotion board in the first place?5 years TIS and still a SPC...

My recommendation is that you buck up, getthe points, get promoted, or just get the H*LL out of MY Army...

AbnCommoNCO,

You do realize that sometimes people are forced to go to the board, I know, I seen it happen. The soldier does not want to go, but that 1SG or CSM says "s/he has been in this long, meet the TIS and TIG for primary zone, s/he needs to go to the board next month, SGT so and so, get that Soldier ready"

I witnessed the same in Iraq. Amazing soldier, but he just wanted to quietly complete his time (he was stop lossed, as a matter of fact), and ETS. He was sent to the board. He had 5 years TIS, but he was one of the best damn guys ever, and an amazing soldier, so TIS doesn't mean much.