Post-nuke the bureaucratic niceties will tend to be mostly out the window and I would think that in most units the promotion process would become decidedly irregular by modern standards.
Battlefield commissions might make a strong comeback. If not, I think you'd see dividional or corps OCS courses set up to put an official blessing on the de facto reality. Without a steady supply of replacement personnel from CONUS, which doesn't exist circa 2000, the US military in Europe would have to look inward for any replacement junior officers anyway. They'll either end up commissioning proven NCOs, or they'll have proven NCOs doing officer's jobs without the benefit of the rank (which can work in a pinch for a platoon leader, but much higher up the food chain and it gets problematic).
For enlisted promotions, I suspect by 2000 it just boils down to the unit commander and some key subordinates having a huddle and deciding who they want to advance to fill an NCO leadership position. Issues like points, time in service, and actually being MOS qualified for the job by 2000 are going to take a backseat to demonstrated ability to deal with the requirements of soldiering in the year 2000.
At the same time, I could also see a lot of stagnation for others in the system. By Y2K, the US military "up or out" system is going to be a thing of the past, and some guys may end up being career privates, particularly if they have behavior issues off duty/in garrison and such.
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08-02-2010, 06:09 PM
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