Read Online Abandoned in Hell : The Fight for Vietnam's Firebase Kate (9780698144262) by Joseph L. (FRW) Marvin; Galloway William; Wolf Albracht - Free Book Online Page A
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into my career and Iâm only an E-6! And I only have three more steps to the maximum enlisted pay grade, E-9.
â The notion of rising to become a sergeant major, an exalted personage who sits at the commanderâs right hand, and doing so while still in his thirties, did not satisfy him.
So Adam applied for flight school; graduation would mean promotion to warrant officer. Adam completed ground school at Fort Wolters, Texas, as an honor graduate, but failed to master the multiple intricacies of flying helicopters; after five months he washed out. As it turned out, that was a good thing: âThere were 122 guys in my class; after Vietnam we had only two survivorsâme and the other washout.â
Adam was assigned to a missile site near Lincoln, Nebraska. He didnât mind the duty, but Ãrsula, pregnant with their second child, hated everything about the state. So Adam applied for Artillery OCS. After graduation, he went to yet another school to learn artillery communications. Then he spent a year in Korea. Through a combination of luck and his father-in-lawâs connections, Adam was tapped to serve as a generalâs aide in the Korean Military Advisory Group. After six months in that job, he took charge of an advisory detachment.
Leaving Korea, Adam picked up his family and went to West Germany, where he took command of a surface-to-surface missile battery. In November 1968 he was promoted to captain; a month later he came down on orders for Vietnam.
â¢Â   â¢Â   â¢
IN time of peace, US Army officer promotions were determined by the size of the armed forces, which has always been regulated by Congress. Peacetime armies are small, and upward mobility in the officer corps is slow. In the decade following the Korean War, second lieutenants served eighteen months before they could be considered for promotion. First lieutenants needed four years in grade before becoming eligible for promotion to captain. The vast majority of OCS and ROTC graduates, Reserve officers, left active duty after two years. Only those with sterling efficiency reports were retained on active duty, and even in training commands, most companies, batteries, and troops were led by captains with upwards of six yearsâ service. Selection for a command was based on seniority and perceived capabilities, as described in efficiency reports. Once in command, an officer could expect at least a year in that position.
All that changed with Vietnam. Between 1965 and 1970, Army troop strength grew by more than 50 percent. Officer promotions acceleratedâone year from second to first lieutenant, and one year more from first lieutenant to captain. There have always been more staff officers than commanders; as the Army ballooned, staff officer billets grew faster than command slots. Common wisdom among senior officers held that successful command time was a prerequisite for advancement to the highest ranksâan officer who had never commanded a company, battery, or troop would be an unlikely choice to command a battalion. An officer without battalion command would probably never command an artillery group, infantry brigade, or cavalry regiment, and officers without command experience at the brigade level would never be considered to command a division, and thus would never become generals. To ensure that as many officers as possible had the opportunity to demonstrate their command chops, and thus ensure all an equal shot at promotion to the highest ranks,a Pentagon policy limited command time at the battalion level and below to six months, with few exceptions.
This was, of course, careerism at its most insidious. It takes months on the job before almost any officer reaches his full potential as a battery or company commander, and during that very demanding learning curve, new commanders will make mistakes. Mistakes in combat cost lives. By giving almost every captain a shot at command, and limiting this
â The notion of rising to become a sergeant major, an exalted personage who sits at the commanderâs right hand, and doing so while still in his thirties, did not satisfy him.
So Adam applied for flight school; graduation would mean promotion to warrant officer. Adam completed ground school at Fort Wolters, Texas, as an honor graduate, but failed to master the multiple intricacies of flying helicopters; after five months he washed out. As it turned out, that was a good thing: âThere were 122 guys in my class; after Vietnam we had only two survivorsâme and the other washout.â
Adam was assigned to a missile site near Lincoln, Nebraska. He didnât mind the duty, but Ãrsula, pregnant with their second child, hated everything about the state. So Adam applied for Artillery OCS. After graduation, he went to yet another school to learn artillery communications. Then he spent a year in Korea. Through a combination of luck and his father-in-lawâs connections, Adam was tapped to serve as a generalâs aide in the Korean Military Advisory Group. After six months in that job, he took charge of an advisory detachment.
Leaving Korea, Adam picked up his family and went to West Germany, where he took command of a surface-to-surface missile battery. In November 1968 he was promoted to captain; a month later he came down on orders for Vietnam.
â¢Â   â¢Â   â¢
IN time of peace, US Army officer promotions were determined by the size of the armed forces, which has always been regulated by Congress. Peacetime armies are small, and upward mobility in the officer corps is slow. In the decade following the Korean War, second lieutenants served eighteen months before they could be considered for promotion. First lieutenants needed four years in grade before becoming eligible for promotion to captain. The vast majority of OCS and ROTC graduates, Reserve officers, left active duty after two years. Only those with sterling efficiency reports were retained on active duty, and even in training commands, most companies, batteries, and troops were led by captains with upwards of six yearsâ service. Selection for a command was based on seniority and perceived capabilities, as described in efficiency reports. Once in command, an officer could expect at least a year in that position.
All that changed with Vietnam. Between 1965 and 1970, Army troop strength grew by more than 50 percent. Officer promotions acceleratedâone year from second to first lieutenant, and one year more from first lieutenant to captain. There have always been more staff officers than commanders; as the Army ballooned, staff officer billets grew faster than command slots. Common wisdom among senior officers held that successful command time was a prerequisite for advancement to the highest ranksâan officer who had never commanded a company, battery, or troop would be an unlikely choice to command a battalion. An officer without battalion command would probably never command an artillery group, infantry brigade, or cavalry regiment, and officers without command experience at the brigade level would never be considered to command a division, and thus would never become generals. To ensure that as many officers as possible had the opportunity to demonstrate their command chops, and thus ensure all an equal shot at promotion to the highest ranks,a Pentagon policy limited command time at the battalion level and below to six months, with few exceptions.
This was, of course, careerism at its most insidious. It takes months on the job before almost any officer reaches his full potential as a battery or company commander, and during that very demanding learning curve, new commanders will make mistakes. Mistakes in combat cost lives. By giving almost every captain a shot at command, and limiting this
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