My son is now an E6

Congrats Mike!  Have a brew on me "Proud Dad". 

Jim 

Thank You sir! Very proud. He is considering the CWO program where he can work up to a Major without going to OCS.

Outstanding! Tell him congrats and Semper Fi for this old Marine.

Tom

Thank You Tom.

fox

Congrats Mike!  Have a brew on me "Proud Dad". 

Jim 

Congrats Mike!!  And a HUGE Thank You to your son for serving his country!!!

Congrats!

Congrats to him on getting his rocker! Hopefully he will earn a couple more.

Congratulations and thank you to your son for his service.

John

GreenThumb

Thank You sir! Very proud. He is considering the CWO program where he can work up to a Major without going to OCS.

Thanks everyone.

Carlos, I am not sure how it works. You go to school as you work your way up but you can only work up to about a O3 or O4 maximum he told me. Apparently it is similar to OCS.

Last I remember, Warrant Officers had four grades- WO1 thru WO4. Their rank looks like a Lieutenants' Bar, but has a black center subdivided inside depending upon the grade. WO1, solid center, WO2, split in half, etc. Did he say that he could work up to Major, or WO4?

Most WOs that I ran across in my career were aviators, although some are in other technical type fields such as the BMO, Battalion Motor Officer, or occasionally in SF on an ODA. Warrant Officer is a pretty good gig, as they usually have reduced command responsibilities compared to a commissioned officer.

Congrats to our son Stik, please pass on a "Well done Marine" from me......Semper Fi

Carlos, His wife told me at CWO2 or 3 they can switch over to officer in this program and progress up the ranks from there. I would imagine the lower final rank is due to age when you became an officer. My son will be 28 in a week or so and that would mean a new OCS candidate at 18-20 has a huge advantage.

JB, it is Green Thumb's son who has earned the congrats this time around. As proud as I am of my son, the honor is all to Mike's son. As a 28 year old Staff Sergeant and combat vet, he is no boy any more...

Mike, a 18-20 year old Marine (in my view) has no advantage over a 28 year old Staff Sergeant in OCS. He (or she) has only a fraction of the experience that makes a good leader that the older candidate has. not to mention maturity. Most adult males don't reach peak physical condition until their mid 20's or later. Compare professional athletes to college athletes for plenty of examples there.

Once again, a well done to your son from this former paratrooper.... oh to have those days again ;)

Thanks Carlos. I appreciate it.

Really! If some 20 year old kid has any advantage over a man of Andrews experience and character thats really FUBAR.

I didn't mean an advantage other than if a younger man goes to OCS he is an officer pretty quickly as opposed to my son who has been in almost 10 years and is a SSgt. That's all I meant. My son does not speak very highly of most of those who went through OCS but that's understandable considering how hard he works for his small paychecks.

Hey !

from a Squid - Semper Fi - Marine ! !

Tell your son "Ooh Rah!" and "Semper Fi!!' from Devil Dawg - he'll know what my screen name means.

If I remember correctly, from my days in the Corps, if you became a commissioned officer, whether you were a CWO or were commissioned from the enlisted ranks (a mustang), you had to go through OCS; no way around it. As a CWO, this wasn't a requirement, as it's a warrant rank, and not a commissioned rank.

That's awesome news. Congratulations.

Congratulations  on your sons promotion -  and tell your son to seriously consider the CWO program, especially in a non-flying status.  In the Army side that means Commo, Maintenance, Personnel or Intelligence - and in most cases, as a CWO he would be running the shop.

Pretty much the same in the Corps.

Congrats GT! As far as I'm concerned, E-6 is when a soldier's ("soldier" in the general sense) leadership ability, which was potential that was developed through the corporal and buck sergeant ranks, has been solidly confirmed. After that, they simply develop expertise in their given field. Warrant Officers are the pinnacle of that expertise. At least that's what I observed during my time in. Also, if he can go through OCS (or whatever it's called in the Corps), he will make for a much better officer than a candidate straight from college. In my experience, with few exceptions, mustangs were far better field commanders than the ROTC butter bars. However, the best CO I ever had, and it was during a combat tour, was a ring-knocker. He was just a real solid dude. He had no corporate plans in the army, which is unusual, from what I understand, for West Point grads. Anyway, congrats again to you and your son!

Thank You everyone. I really appreciate the comments.

So in the middle of all of this, Andrew is a source of pride for you and Mrs. PMD.

He's a father now, correct?

He is the father of three now. Two boys and a girl. :)