Does the ‘Up-Or-Out’ Promotion System hurt the Military?

Yes, Some are very proficient in their positions and ranks as well as happy at their levels, not wanting promotion. When they are put out the military loses that expertise.

Though the intentions of it were good, if we applied the same criteria to the careers of the individuals that lead us in WWII, we very well could have lost that conflict. I also believe that the Up or Out system is the reason that our involvement in the Vietnam Conflict/War and our current 'War on Terror' lasted or is lasting as long as they did/have. It has also led to the micro-management of war by politicians in the Executive Branch and Legislative Branch of our government.

No. The good ole boys picking and choosing irregardless of lack of experience is the biggest issue. They are passing over good Soldiers able to promote in order to promote their buddies.

Yes, the main and only reason I ETS'ed as an officer. I had 4 OERs left before my MAJ board and had to make 3 out of my last 4 OER top block to be promoted to MAJ. I submitted to two different Functional Areas and was rejected because all my OERs were HQ and I had no MQ OER. I thought I had a good chance to go into one of these Functional areas because of my degree in computer science, knowledge of network engineering and software engineering and IT certs. At the end it came to MQ OER. After the second rejection I made the determination of ETSing. If I could not make it to one of the functional areas because I did not have an MQ OER, I would have definitely not make it to MAJ, which for my branch there was a 61% promotion rate. So I decided to call it quits. Now I will be working at the state level doing networking and software engineering stuff. It kinda sucks that these functional areas in the army that require these skills are not based on skills like in the civilian sector, nor no test given like in the civilian sector (for my interview test I had to build a program from scratch and answer some networking questions). Yet if someone who has no idea about networks has lots of evaluations with MQs, they are chosen. I think for choosing candidates for the functional areas should also be fixed, were candidates skills nd knowledge are considered over evaluations and no up or out is applied since these jobs are based more on specialties rather than being a leader. This way the Army is not going like crazy trying to find civilians who have certain IT skills to be promoted to O6, and others don't end up leaving with that knowledge. Anyways just my two cents. Not time to keep building my Android app to put on the google app store :).

The Army loses the experience, knowledge and capability of soldiers who are great at what they do at the level they have reached. There is an inherent cost in re-acquiring the level of expertise of the personnel removed under this policy. Also leads to proof that the "Peter Principal' is a valid concept.
I observed how some of our allies' systems worked. Mandatory retirement for a Captain on the UK Army was 52. He stayed in that long unless he really fouled up.

The Army Warrant and old-style Specialists/Technical Ranks represent an excellent system to retain and reward those conscientious troops who wished to remain as Individual Contributors/Subject Matter Experts. Any necessary pruning of the ranks can be accomplished by RIF Boards that are fair to the troops. As I have said before, using Promotion Boards as de-facto RIF Boards is obscene and insulting to the otherwise good patriots that we lose through this broken and defective system.

Any form of this type policy should be on a case by case basis at best. Everyone isn't meant to lead and who are you going to lead if you push your followers out anyway?

A

Yes it does, if you have a person that knows his/her job. Very well and they aren't leadership material but like i said know there job well why does the military need to kick them out, bring back the spec ranks and keep the good people in the military,

Could agree more. I'm no fan of cruise and collect but if you're in an E-5 billet that's competitive (MOS or NEC) and have some hard-charging E-4s that are below you and want to stay where you are, you'll have plenty of incentive to be the best at your job. I've known some great 'Iron Majors' in my time.