The ‘Up-Or-Out’ Promotion System Hurts The Military

If it would have been allowed, I'd have been a 15 year 1st Lieutenant. Or at whatever point the legs and back couldn't take it anymore. I loved being in a Rifle Company.

This is a difficult issue to work. There is virtue in having people who can do a job and do it well keep doing that job for as long as possible. In the commercial sector, I saw this work. There are many great people who are very happy and extremely competent being business analysts, programmers, database administrators, welders, auto mechanics. They will fail if you try to make them managers or sales people. It just isn't what the can or want to do. The commercial sector is profit oriented so for example a good database administrator who is willing to work hard while the company to makes 20% gross profit off his labor rate is welcome. As long as there is a need for his skills and abilities, he's welcome to stay. However, if business declines, the contract ends, or he fails to keep up with technology in his field, he can be gone in a matter of days (unless he's in a union, then it may take years to get rid of him).

The Government in general and the military in particular is operating on a very different set of rules. The military isn't in business to make a profit. We are/were there to fight and win the nation's wars and protect the national interests. We need the best and brightest employees we can get and they need to provide optimal performance of their jobs while they are working for the DoD. Additionally, Congress sets a budget that drives end-strength for the services each FY. The budget is based on political considerations, not on how well the DoD fought the last war or what it's expected to do in the next. We set performance standards for specialties and grades that we believe will help ensure the best and brightest continue and advance. And we develop evaluation systems with the belief that we can identify the people who should advance based on those standards. Unfortunately, this system of evaluation and advancement causes elimination of some people at various career points. The flip side of this fact is that it opens opportunities within the end-strength limit for other people to advance. I believe the Services in general and promotion boards in particular work very hard to get it right and select the best people for promotion. Of course being a human endeavor, they sometimes get it wrong and Richard Cranium gets promoted. I was a "victim" of the system when I was passed over for O-6. In retrospect, I think the promotion board made a good call. I could have continued on as an O-5 staff officer for 5 or even 10 more years and provided good service to my Country. The Air Force didn't need just another staff officer. They had many majors and Lt Col's who could fill my staff job. They didn't need me as a colonel because I had never commanded, never worked in the Pentagon, and never served in a war zone (I missed Viet Nam and was retired before OEF/OIF). It worked out okay for me in the long run. I spent the next 16 years as a government contractor doing about the same work I did as an O-5, but I didn't count against end-strength and I didn't occupy a manpower position that an aspiring O-4 or O-5 could fill for joint service credit.

One more point. If your "best" sergeant or officer wasn't selected for promotion and was subsequently forced out, ask yourself if you did everything you could to help them get that promotion. If they were struggling with meeting a standard or completing PME necessary for advancement, you should do everything you can to help them excel instead of just maintaining. Ask yourself, did I write the best quality NCOER or OER that I could? How's my English? Can I express myself on paper as well as my subordinates deserve? Make sure your leadership was good enough to provide them the environment they need to succeed.

I've seen plenty of skilled, talented, dedicated soldiers get forced out this way. If you want to draw down, slower recruitment, and severance packages would work best is some cases.