Chief in 5-yrs?

When I first heard about this, I was very skeptical. After getting multi-sourced; I am gobsmacked.

Chief Cryptologic Technician (Collection) (SW/AW) (sel) Joe Lemanek recently joined the ranks of chief petty officer at just 24 years, eight months of age.

Lemanek, assigned to Navy Information Operations Command at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, has been in the Navy for five years and five months.

You got that right. Less than 6 years. I'm all for advancing those who should be advanced in a time of war - but this isn't that. What you have is a 5.0 Sailor (with a very good publicist/personal PIO) who had the right stars match up with his exemplary performance. This is a systems failure - I think.

As usual, I am going to the Command Master Chief high council on this. Here are two quotes from two different CMDCMs who are real close to how I feel. I'm keeping their name out of it because of the private nature of the emails.

CDMCM #1: I remember the first time I heard of someone making Chief in less than 10 years... I feel sorry for all those other CTs that were not selected. The ones out there running divisions, writing Evals, scheduling and tracking PMS, Career counseling, and all the other things that really good First Class Petty Officers do. I'm not saying that this selectee has done any of this, but how much??

In my opinion it may sound like a good story to someone, but to me this sucks!!

CMDCM #2: I agree maybe we should maybe re-look at the EP recommendation as the sole determining factor for taking the exam early. Maybe we should make rating knowledge a pre-requisite again for eligibility and maybe we should include leadership milestones such as WCS and LPO tours a pre-requisite in addition to the week long leadership class. But I will tell you this guy was going to be wearing Khakis as a Chief or as an Officer.

It's all in the timing. Chief? Navy Chief? If he is (and it looks like he is) send him to OCS/NROTC/USNA: yesterday. But, Chief - as in Goat Locker Chief? What do you think?