Does This Seem Like A Lot Of Admirals?

[AFTT47]

It's called bureaucracy.

[The Valkyrie]

I'm pretty sure that's a few too many, yes.

[Minimalist]

[brewer]

AFAIK, even all the way back to the 60s, the Pentagon has been staffed with more (way more) officers than the entire war department needed during World War II.

If you want a reference for that, sorry, it's my recollection of a Time or Newsweek article I kinda recall reading during the Reagan military build up back in the 80s.

Lord knows the Pentagon has not suffered a reduction in head count of a single person since then.

I knew that talk of "rear admirals" would draw you in.

[Minimalist]

It's not just the Navy and people are noticing.

http://taskandpurpose.com/us-military-many-generals/

Does The US Military Have Too Many Generals?

As of Feb. 29, there were 411 one stars, 299 two stars, 139 three stars, and 37 four-star active generals and admirals, with several more appointed recently. The ratio of officers in the military to the total force size has grown from 15.69% in 2000 to 17.54% in 2015.

We need more indians and fewer chiefs.

[The Grand Nudger]

.............and I had to wait 5 months for an E5 spot to open up after I'd already qualified......

I spent the end of my time as an e4 as a corporal rather than a specialist. Same headaches, no raise.

[Minimalist]

YOu should have put in for general.

[The Grand Nudger]

I didn't have the points........yet

I would have, though..if I didn't get discharged.  I wanted to be career.   Not a general, I wanted to be Command Sergeant Major. Dont get me wrong, I had a picture of Shinseki in my billet (though I felt betrayed when he gave everybody a black beret). I wanted to do it as infantry all the way. I opted not to ride a desk, and that was probably a mistake. Pride man, pride...it fucked me. I still believe it was attainable, but that's pride again, probably, lol.

#shattereddreams

[AFTT47]

In the US, (at least during the period of 1985-1995 which was when I was in) there was a disparity between the services as far as ease of attaining rank among the enlisted corps. In the Air Force, E6 (Tech Sergeant) was the one which was difficult to crack. I think in the Army, it was E7. There was also the perception amongs us flyboys that although rank was made easier in the Army, it was easier lost through misbehavior too. We used to talk about Army stripes being held in place with velcro rather than needle and thread because it changed so often.

I don't know how accurate that perception was. I think we all respected each other but there was a definite rivalry between the services which clouded our perception of each other.

[The Grand Nudger]

Aw fuck, e7..and this is after '01..you could murder a motherfucker in cold blood and not lose it...it was just hard to get it.  There are only so many platoons (Cold Steel!)

As far as misconduct and how easy it was to lose rank- I hit E5 twice.  I got busted once for profiteering (cigarettes and MnMs, mostly). .......and the second time I got busted it was for doing my job but 6 mnoths later I was recomissioned to train new recruits in MOUT.  Never lost my scroll, though, cant take that away from me, no matter what I do. It was only easy to progress in the army if you were infantry. We got away with everything. Kept it in house, you know? Doubly so if we had a scroll...I got off scott free on some shit that would have been a discharge otherwise. I was expected to lose my shit and go stone cold on friend an foe. It wasn't acceptable (we hold ourselves to the highest), just expected. A weird standard.