Army drill sergeants will now automatically be promoted to staff sergeant

Earn the hat, get a stripe.

The Army said Friday that soldiers who qualify as drill sergeants — the campaign-hatted instructors who sternly welcome new recruits into the Army — will automatically be promoted to the rank of staff sergeant when they complete training for the job.

Soldiers must be sergeants — the E-5 pay grade in the Army — to volunteer for drill sergeant duty. Service as a drill sergeant is generally a three-year tour away from a soldier’s primary job in the Army. The new promotion policy matches one that has been in place for Army recruiters for about three years, according to officials at Army Recruiting Command.

The promotion will move the new instructors from the E-5 pay grade to E-6, a bump of about $3,000 per year, and any sergeants currently serving as drill sergeants who meet all the requirements for promotion will also pick up staff sergeant, with an effective date of Sept. 10, 2026.

Drill sergeants and recruiters are among several special duties, which the Army calls “broadening assignments,” that most enlisted soldiers are expected to volunteer for on a path to higher ranks.

“Drill sergeants are the backbone of the force and make a lasting impact on every enlisted soldier’s career,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Wilson, the senior enlisted advisor to Army Recruiting Command, which oversees both drill sergeant and recruiter training. “Many of us who served for 10, 15, or 20 years or more always remember the drill sergeants who helped us to become ready and lethal members of the U.S. Army.”

Soldiers will get the promotion when they graduate from the Army’s Drill Sergeant Academy, according to Sgt. Maj. Chris Klutts, a spokesperson for Army Recruiting Command. The promotion will be considered temporary while serving as a drill sergeant, and will become permanent when they complete their tour.

The promotion will apply to drill sergeants at all levels of training, from the bed making and boot shining on the first day of Basic Combat Training, to instructors who serve in the technical job schools, known as Advanced Individual Training, or AIT, that new soldiers attend to learn their full-time jobs.

“This promotes incoming drill sergeants to the rank they are going to hold to do the job,” Klutts said. “It also increases competition. What we want is for the best NCOs in the Army to volunteer to become drill sergeants, so we are picking from the best.”

UPDATE: 9.18.2026; This article was updated after publication to clarify that all sergeants currently serving as drill sergeants will be eligible for promotion to staff sergeant under the new policy.

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