Your story is my story, except I definitely was a bit more belligerent. I picked up E4 less than two years in service, which was tough as an 11, and proceeded to remain there for like another 40+ months until I fucked off, although that's a story for a different day. I consistently filled billets above my rank, and with that came dealing with dudes with rockers on the regular, and when they saw me, not a big guy, only two stripes, most scratched their heads. I generally was able to prove my competency to individuals, but there was one who just couldn't stand me and would try to correct me at every opportunity.

Our last exercise together I was just a squad leader and he was a platoon sergeant, different platoon, not in my chain of command, but constantly would try to correct me or my Marines, and that shit just didn't fly with me, especially knowing I was out of here in like three or four months, and so I would just turn up the belligerent with him, because I knew his only recourse was to either hit me or go to my chain of command, and my platoon sergeant, my platoon commander, and company gunny always had my back because I did my fucking job well, and so it'd always end there with him acting like a baby and me acting like a child.

Yeah, good times. Stupid times but good times.