it takes about 26 years to grow an admiral or a general
I omitted to mention that you could be the hottest runner in your pack, and while in command, as the saying goes, you are “only one 17-year-old from disaster.” That means you could be on an apparently sure path to GOFO rank, and one of the sailors under your command chooses to do something that hazards the ship, crew or mission. The CO is accountable for the decisions of all, and it only takes one error to undo a glittering career.
Col Smitherman is the current Marine Detachment senior officer at USNA but graduated from Texas A&M.
Colonel Aytes got relieved? Must have been recently.
Ironically, the CO of OCS, Colonel Williamson, is also a USNA grad.
Is that irony or being assigned to an open billet?Col Smitherman is the current Marine Detachment senior officer at USNA but graduated from Texas A&M.
Colonel Aytes got relieved? Must have been recently.
Ironically, the CO of OCS, Colonel Williamson, is also a USNA grad.
He did not get relieved. He retired this summer after a great career in the USMC.
Is that irony or being assigned to an open billet?
@BDHuff09 my pot isn't stirred. My post sounded like it was I guess. Like I wrote above though, a small number of Marine generals are academy grads which may be due to the small number of academy grads in the Corps. I suppose it is ironic an academy grad is CO at Brown Field in the context of this conversation, but filling a billet regardless of pedigree was probably the priority when the colonel was assigned.
I also thought academy grads would be assigned to all billets in Annapolis but that is not so. I was once in the personnel numbers game and saw either a billet filled or a billet empty. The Fleet is always more upset about an empty billet. Anyway, I didn't mean to sound all snippy.
I had three company officers while at USNA and none were USNA grads. One was a music major from Florida State (eventual three star).@BDHuff09 my pot isn't stirred. My post sounded like it was I guess. Like I wrote above though, a small number of Marine generals are academy grads which may be due to the small number of academy grads in the Corps. I suppose it is ironic an academy grad is CO at Brown Field in the context of this conversation, but filling a billet regardless of pedigree was probably the priority when the colonel was assigned.
I also thought academy grads would be assigned to all billets in Annapolis but that is not so. I was once in the personnel numbers game and saw either a billet filled or a billet empty. The Fleet is always more upset about an empty billet. Anyway, I didn't mean to sound all snippy.
USNA cherry-picks staff officers and instructors for USNA, all commissioning sources. Supe and Dant to date have been grads, as far as I know. I had no idea I could go there for duty until I was nominated to go for multiple interviews there, as part of a “package,” so this OCS grad found herself a BattO after making it through the vetting process.