[Webstral]

I love it! This look is far better than the one of the man on whom the character is [very] loosely based. Seeing a CIB, Ranger tab, etc. makes me think that I may have to write in an infantry LT past for Thomason. Vietnam vet, yada yada, branch transferred when he hit captain because there are more slots for MI captains than for MI lieutenants. It's common enough. He never forgot his infantry roots, though; thus the prediliction for listening to the combat arms guys when they start to show up in 1997 and for placing them appropriately. Heck, his close connection with the DCP may be partially due to infantry connections made all those years ago in 'Nam.

Great work, rcaf! You've really made me think.

Webstral

P.S. Okay, so now I'm trying to explain to myself how an MI officer acquires all those hooah badges. CIB is easy: platoon leader in Vietnam. The rest, I'm thinking, follow from jobs that also lead to an MI guy climbing to very near the top of the MI food chain. A master parachute badge with no combat jumps can be explained by a spell in the 82nd Airborne as a battalion S-2 or perhaps a brigade S-2/AS-2. An MI officer in an S-2 slot in an airborne infantry battalion also has a reasonable shot of attending Ranger School in the 80's. If Thomason stays on the tactical side for most of his career, he will be fasted-tracked to general by the combat arms guys who control these things. Of course, a couple of jobs in strategic intelligence along the way won't hurt. He'll have to do some higher-echelon work once he hits colonel. Still, with battalion S-2, brigade S-2, division G-2, and maybe a command or two (MI company team level and/or MI battalion) under his belt, he's practially a shoo-in for brigadier in 1993 or thereabouts. Maybe a senior staff position in Desert Storm or command of an MI brigade would clinch the deal. From brigadier, it's a short hop to post command. In fact, when I arrived at Huachuca the CG was a BG.

Again, thanks rcaf!