Questions of Rank

munk said:
The only Colonel I know sells chickens.


munk
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Not to drive this thread right off the cliff of drift, but have any of you guys ever eaten at "The Colonel's Lady"? It's the REAL KFC. Surely you Louisville guys have. Great eatin'.


Jake
 
cliff355 said:
In addition, is there some code of silence among retired Generals, or are their pensions so good that they turn down outfits like Fox News when asked for their expert opinions?
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Didn't Fox News hire Wes Clark???

June 15, 2005
Gen. Wesley Clark Joins FNC as Foreign Affairs Analyst
By Michele Greppi
Fox News Channel has signed Gen. Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, CNN contributor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, as a military and foreign affairs analyst.
 
if you get passed over for promotion as a lcdr/major you can be dismissed (get 2 or 3 trys if i recall), when you hit cdr/ltcol & get passed over, you can still stay in till you hit retirement (they get scrambled eggs on their hat brims to signify being field grade thereafter), least thats what i remember from my days in the coast guard (i never got passed over, just let my active duty contract expire after 5 years active, then went into the reserves where you stay commissioned till retirement, or resignation. you have the choice of active or inactive reserve - i'm inactive at the moment as there are no units to drill with nearby here.)

even if selected for promotion, you go on a list & the list gets promoted from the top down based on seniority as openings occur. the enlisted ranks are similar, but don't think there is a mandatory policy to dismiss those that fail to get selected. not many people are going to stay in at the lower ranks long enough to get retired, unless they're really unlucky & get busted just before hand. of course i've been away from it all for a while now, so it may have changed in the last decade....
 
cliff355 said:
I've seen him on there but his appearances are rare compared to the troop of Colonels they seem to have on staff.

I like the Chicken Colonel too, but what kind of sales argument is this: "Buy fried chicken from me, because you can see by my title that I was not fired by the Army."
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I believe that Colonel Sanders was a Kentucky Colonel...which is a sort of honorary title conferred upon Kentuckians, if I recall correctly.

Jeff
 
Exactly, Jeff. The Kentucky Cols once were an elite militia unit for the governor, mainly made of 1812 veterans, but has become a purely honorary title, but not exclusively for Kentuckians. Your nomination must get approved by the governor. (I believe the process is something like, "Guv, you approved 12 new colonels today." "Oh, OK.")
 
My father was career CG and retired as a maverick O4. He described the situation as this: past O4, politics are very much an issue and he had no interest in them. I'm inclined to believe him. He also stated that being passed over for promotion twice in a row was grounds for dismissal, but this was a few years ago and it may have changed since then.

Enlisted ranks work differently. The Navy has high year tenures assigned to each enlisted rank; if you hit the mark without advancing, they let you go after that enlistment is up. The numbers change from time to time. I have no idea what they are currently.

Eligibility for a pension is based on time served, not rank aquired.
 
Back to the original question, could it be simply that there are more retired colonels than generals running around?

Although I suspect pensions might play a role. Or perhaps a general's experiences might leave him privvy to things he can not discuss. Including things like specific really stupid or creepy things other generals, politicians, or whatever have done.
 
Good reading. I thought that after reaching colonel you had to get approval from the senate before advancing to General. I would think that like heirarchial (sp?) organizations the pyramid would get pretty vertical around in there...
 
There's no mystery to me why you see so many retired Colonels running around working, the reason, simply put, is retired Colonels' wives. Sounds a bit flippant, I know, but in all truth a goodly number of them gals want to be maintained at a standard of living they've grown accustomed to. Wives of enlisted men separating from service have somewhat more realistic levels of expectation.;)

Sarge
 
cliff355 said:
...Also: “Is it possible for enlisted personnel in the Marines to retire after 20 years at any rank below Gunnery Sergeant?” ...
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Yes, there are many retired Staff Sergeants via Enlisted Career Force Controls. It is also possible to retire after being reduced in grade from a rank that had higher service limits.
Regards,
Greg
 
There's more colonels than generals because there are always more lower ranks than higher. I imagine many of those generals have gone into business with military-related industries after retirement, and their new employers don't need the publicity of a high-level employee offending some portion or other of the political spectrum.

As far as getting riffed (from the term Reduction In Force), the peacetime military won't keep placeholders. Like academia with its policy of "publish or perish", the military wants officers with ambition. In wartime, they probably keep anyone even halfway competent willing to stay on.
 
Sylvrfalcn said:
There's no mystery to me why you see so many retired Colonels running around working, the reason, simply put, is retired Colonels' wives. Sounds a bit flippant, I know, but in all truth a goodly number of them gals want to be maintained at a standard of living they've grown accustomed to. Wives of enlisted men separating from service have somewhat more realistic levels of expectation.;)

Sarge
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Exactly so, from my experience, Sarge.
 
My dad had a cousin who went into the Army out of high school, got a college education while in service, and then they put him through medical school, and ended up as a psychiatrist. We visited him when he was at West Point on a psychiatric study.

He was perfecly willing to go back to civilian life, but his wife liked the military benefits, so he stuck around. It's a lot less expensive raising a large family with the medical and housing thrown in. :)
 
I've noticed a direct correlation between the size of a guy's family and how likely he is to remain in the service.

If a guy is married with kids, it was pretty much understood that he'd be making a career out of the military: "Smith? Nah, he's got two kids. He can't afford to leave."
 
I'm very naive. I'm stunned that being passed over for promotion is ground for dismissal.

In academic circles, colleges often have a policy that professors, in order to gain or maintain tenure, must "publish or perish,"

I think there are many academics in media and educational circles who are sympathetic to this plight, and give the OK to publish many authors who otherwise would be passed over. This makes for a lot of mediocre or even academic junk that we find ourselves reading.


munk
 
Boring! And Of No Interest.
This really streatched kukuries.
We did speak of esoteric things which few understood.
 
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