Why wasn't Gomer promoted?

The congressman who came to visit tried to make him a Corpral (who just happened to be the mayor of Mayberry, Parley Bear) but in the end he was happy to keep Sergant Carter and Gomer together.

I remember the episode where he took the PFC test. He had a picture of Sgt. Carter in his pocket to give him a boost in morale.

In real life, not getting promoted wasn't such a bad idea, some of the time...

After the Viet Nam era, a former co-worker talked about his time as a Private in the Marine Corps for most of his four years.
He was one of the "troubled boys" that a judge offerred a choice of joining the Marines, or going to jail. (That was before the military's policy changed to no longer accept "troubled boys".) There was a mention of an explosive set off in the high school parking lot, and he was caught leaving the parking lot...

During later Basic Training, a General toured the facility, and this guy's height and physique got him placed in the front of a formation, and the General requested him as a member of "the General's Staff". While there, he read the Marine Corps manual cover to cover, twice, according to him, and he got familiar with the procedures and paperwork processed through the General's offices. One thing he discovered was how a computer automaticly cycled PFC's and up, through a rotation to Viet Nam, and 'lowly' Privates had to be processed "on paper" through the General's office! Hmm!!!
He refused his promotions for three years, so any paperwork sending him to Viet Nam would have to go through the office where he worked! His Sgt. was supposedly as surprised that he accepted his last promotion as he was when he had refused the others. This guy also knew the computer was programmed NOT to send 'short timers' to Viet Nam, and that was why he took the last promotion. (According to regulations, promotions could be refused!)

He also had a LOT more stories that seemed like they could have gotten him and some of the others court martialed, so I won't share any of those...

Sometimes you need to be "smart" not to get promoted.
(Not that Gomer's case was that way.)

he was. he was promoted to Priviate First Class

[deleted]

Gomer was the eternal optimist. There needs to be a Gomer revival in the American news media.

There is definitely one even worse - far worse. Beetle Bailey. ;-) Not TV, but even goofier than Gomer.

YOU CAN SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT ABOUT THE SOUTH, BUT YOU NEVER SEE SOUTHERNERS HEADING NORTH WHEN THEY RETIRE.

Yes, this did happen. My own dear departed father-in-law, who fought two tours of duty in the Army during WWII, first in North Africa against Rommel and then in Europe -- during which his unit crossed the Alps on foot and liberated Rome and at least one concentration camp -- was a good soldier, but had WAY too much fun whenever the guys got R&R. Every time, he wound up being busted back down to Private. After a while, it became a big joke to him, though he did win several commendations for bravery in battle. He and several other buds who did the same actually had regular annual reunions and he always came home looking 10 years younger, but telling us he felt 10 years older, LOL. I think it's no coincidence that his favorite sitcom was Hogan's Heroes and his favorite movie was The Big Red One.

He was quite a character -- had a fierce temper to the end, but would give anyone the shirt off his back and treated everyone just the same. We miss him every single day.

"YOU CAN SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT ABOUT THE SOUTH, BUT YOU NEVER SEE SOUTHERNERS HEADING NORTH WHEN THEY RETIRE." -- Anonymous

In the Old Army before World War II, you could be a private for 30 years because they had no up or out system that they started it after World War II. Even then you still had to serve a number of years before you could be promoted. In his book Rumors of War, former Marine LT. Phil Caputo stated that some of the old Marine NCOs were complaining about how young the NCOs were becoming. One of Caputo's sergeant stated that back in his time, you had to serve five years as a corporal before they would even consider you for the rank of buck sergeant. I somewhat agree with that statement because I have seen guys in the Air Force in the late 70s and early 80s becoming staff sergeants even before their first enlistment was even completed, and they let those four stripes go to their heads and acted like spranking brand new baby face 2nd lieutenants.

From a Marine's viewpoint, not very much in the show made much sense or, except for the uniforms, had much to do with the Marine Corps. For instance, Vietnam was never mentioned in the show.

I can remember an episode where he beat out Sgt. Carter to go to Officer's Candidate School. So he ALMOST got promoted, once.