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Army Staff Sergeant E-6 Noncommissioned Officer, U.S. Army

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Army Ranks » Staff Sergeant Rank • SSG Pay • SSG Rank History • Promotion Information

Army Promotion to E-6 Staff Sergeant

A Staff Sergeant is a Noncommissioned Officer in the United States Army at DoD paygrade E-6. This page describes how the Army determines who is eligible for the promotion list to Staff Sergeant.

Generally, Staff Sergeants are chosen for promotion by a special board from a pool of soldiers who are eligible for promotion. Eligible soldiers are classified as Primary Zone (PZ), which is the main group of soldiers eligible to be Sergeants, or Secondary Zone (SZ), which is comprised of soldiers who have demonstrated leadership potential and are eligible for promotion ahead of their peers of the same seniority.

From these two zones, soldiers are reviewed by the board for promotion to Staff Sergeant based on their Promotion Points, a system that recognizes soldiers for their skills, accomplishments, and seniority.

There are Time In Service (TIS) and Time In Grade (TIG) requirements that must be met before a soldier is eligible for promotion to Staff Sergeant.

Requirements for promotion to SSG are as follows:

• Board appearance is 82 months TIS/eight months TIG.
• Earliest promotion after 84 months TIS/ten months TIG.

• Board appearance is 46 months TIS/five months TIG.
• Earliest promotion after 48 months TIS/seven months TIG.

Want to learn more? Read about the Army's Staff Sergeant rank on Military-Ranks.org.