An excerpt from A Short History of the Non-Commissioned Officer…

“In the early days of the American Revolution, little standardization of NCO ditties or responsibilities existed. In 1778, during the long, hard winter at Valley Forge, Inspector General Friedrich von Steuben standardized NCO duties and responsibilities in his Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States (printed in 1779). Among other things this work (commonly called the Blue Book) set down the duties and responsibilities for corporals, sergeants, first sergeants, quartermaster sergeants, and sergeants major, which were the NCO ranks of the period, It also emphasized the importance of selecting quality soldiers for NCO positions. (*von Steuben) This work served for 30 Years as the primary regulations for the Army.”

An excerpt from an Article at Military.com…

“A shortage of sergeants in some specialties has prompted a new Army policy in which corporals and specialists could be automatically promoted without a board. Under the Army's semi-centralized promotion policy approved Feb. 23, all eligible specialists and corporals (with 48 months in service and a year in grade) will be placed on a promotion list.”

Folks I am not sure where to start with this but since Estrogen Lass beat me to the punch her thoughts on the matter are here.  A salient point :

“What gets me the most I think is that there will be a lot of NCOs running around with authority that could give a rat's ass about anything let alone the Soldier that they will be leading. It is asking for a lot of mistakes.”

Who out there thinks this is a good idea? Is this a left over from General “Fix everything with a hat” Shinseki?

If you owned a business would you initiate mass promotions using this criteria? They way this is supposed to work is that when soldiers hit 48 months in service and have been a Specialist for 12 months then thy will automatically be placed on the promotion list and be given the minimum amount of points necessary to be promotable even if they didn’t earn them on their own. Of course this also eliminates the need for these soldiers to appear before a promotion board like their peers who earned their points on their own had to do.  Once again the Army will reward nonperformance and simultaneously cheapen the rank of Sergeant. Do they think that stiking stripes on someone will make them responsible as though they had been dipped in fairy dust?

The Army is on a collision course with the Hollow Force we only recently left behind. When the pool of leaders has been so thoroughly diluted the dangers inherent in soldiering skyrocket. We are fortunate in that as of the moment there are no nations who can even come close to neutralizing the fabulous technological advantage that allows us to fight the enemy without large scale conflicts. Right now we are able to limp by through the expedient of minimizing the cross-section of troops who engage in close combat to the very small (and ever shrinking) part of the Army which has tenaciously held onto standards and practices considered “Old-fashioned” and “politically incorrect” by the Perfumed Princes who make policy.

When (not if) an opposing nation that can force us into a full scale ground war or even a prolonged lower-intensity conflict arises, the cadre of weak “leaders” that this and other policies have promulgated will crack under the pressure.  Soldiers like Wanderer and Calangelo will have long since left the Army out of disgust and we will either have to scramble madly to re-tool out Army mid-war or we will lose. I don’t like either option… Do you?