Officer promotions follow a "time-in-service flow and promotion opportunity rates for "in the zone" promotion" (zone is simply an amount of time from their last promotion to their current eligibility).
Two flubs and you're either retired or required to separate. This could be kinda ugly if you've got 18 years in.
Now, an officer who is looking at a promotion to Major to Colonel, can attempt an early (or below-the-zone) promotion. Most of them don't do that unless they have a 100% lock on the requirements, (schooling, level/type of assignments, fitness reports) because if you *don't* get that promotion below the zone, it counts as one of your two strikes.
If you don't get promoted your first go around "in the zone", you slide into the "above the zone" the selection rate is *very* low (like 3%).
One of the real killers of this system is the fitness report. I've seen officers who just didn't get along with their superior officers get their careers hammered by the stroke of a pen. And I've seen dirt bags glow on paper.
NCOs staying in are a little different. There's a minimum rank that you have to be to be allowed to stay in for 20 years, that that is E6 (Staff Sergeant in the Army and Marines, Technical Sergeant in the Air Force and one of those frickin' Petty Officer ranks in the Navy/Coast Guard ((sorry, even after all this time being in the service and being interested in military, I still haven't figured out the naval ranks)). In theory, you could be promoted to E6 in the first eight years of your career and never get another promotion.
Once you hit E6, it becomes a case of how many years you can stay in before they muster you out. As an E6, you can stay for roughly 23 years.
NCOs have similar promotion requirements - schools, positions and fitness reports, although there is more leeway allowed for being technically proficient in your position.
All of this comes from the US attitude that leaders aren't born, they are made. Its a great theory, but fails horribly the first couple of years when we find ourselves in a shooting war.
The British and the Israelis have had (I don't know if its changed since I was in) a system that follows a modified version of the Peter Principal. Officers are allowed to find the level of command/responsibility they are a good match for and then spend the rest of their career there (with pay bumps for time in service and such).
The Brits have done that in the past for enlisted troops as well. A Corporal with 20 years of service is not unheard of. They won't be very good at planning a movement of a Rifle Company 100 klicks, but they'll be *very* good at getting his 4 - 8 soldiers over that distance.
My Marine friend retired at 20 as an E5, after 1) having never been an E6 (although he refused the promotion) and 2) never been busted a rank (almost unheard of in the Marines).
It used to be that at the magic '18 years' mark, they couldn't separate you for things like this; they had to let you stay in until you hit 20. (At 17 years, 11 months, however, you're SOL.) I know that applies to RIF (Reduction in Force, layoffs to you civvies out there), and I think it applies here as well, but I wouldn't swear to it. (My dad was RIF'ed at 17 1/2 years.)
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johno
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Date: 2008-10-21 02:07 pm (UTC)Two flubs and you're either retired or required to separate. This could be kinda ugly if you've got 18 years in.
Now, an officer who is looking at a promotion to Major to Colonel, can attempt an early (or below-the-zone) promotion. Most of them don't do that unless they have a 100% lock on the requirements, (schooling, level/type of assignments, fitness reports) because if you *don't* get that promotion below the zone, it counts as one of your two strikes.
If you don't get promoted your first go around "in the zone", you slide into the "above the zone" the selection rate is *very* low (like 3%).
One of the real killers of this system is the fitness report. I've seen officers who just didn't get along with their superior officers get their careers hammered by the stroke of a pen. And I've seen dirt bags glow on paper.
NCOs staying in are a little different. There's a minimum rank that you have to be to be allowed to stay in for 20 years, that that is E6 (Staff Sergeant in the Army and Marines, Technical Sergeant in the Air Force and one of those frickin' Petty Officer ranks in the Navy/Coast Guard ((sorry, even after all this time being in the service and being interested in military, I still haven't figured out the naval ranks)). In theory, you could be promoted to E6 in the first eight years of your career and never get another promotion.
Once you hit E6, it becomes a case of how many years you can stay in before they muster you out. As an E6, you can stay for roughly 23 years.
NCOs have similar promotion requirements - schools, positions and fitness reports, although there is more leeway allowed for being technically proficient in your position.
All of this comes from the US attitude that leaders aren't born, they are made. Its a great theory, but fails horribly the first couple of years when we find ourselves in a shooting war.
The British and the Israelis have had (I don't know if its changed since I was in) a system that follows a modified version of the Peter Principal. Officers are allowed to find the level of command/responsibility they are a good match for and then spend the rest of their career there (with pay bumps for time in service and such).
The Brits have done that in the past for enlisted troops as well. A Corporal with 20 years of service is not unheard of. They won't be very good at planning a movement of a Rifle Company 100 klicks, but they'll be *very* good at getting his 4 - 8 soldiers over that distance.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 03:32 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 05:25 pm (UTC)Ditto and my thoughts before asking this were caused by this confusion.
I read "Retired as a Captain" and went Huh?
Doh!...should have read it as "retired at O-6."
no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 01:05 am (UTC)Alex