Sorry to say mate but that is totally wrong..............................Hantslad wrote:I don't know how quick promotion is for officers? All I do know is that there aren't a massive number of Officers in the Corps, so you do the Maths???!
The Corps today is massivley imballanced and overborn with officers.
Up to a couple of years ago Youngs Officers joined up in two batches (troops) May and September, now they join in one batch of around sixty. And they nearly ALL pass out. Thats not because its easier -far from it- it's because the selection process is much more thourough. Retention in the Officer ranks is also extreamly high. Its not known as the best pension system in the world for nothing! Also to add to this a process of realingnment took place about 2 years ago. ALL officers were promoted overnight. RM officers serving with other services were promoted acting temporary whilst they were away so they scrubbed round this and made it perminant to all. (No extra pay though!!) Thats why these days troop officers are Captains and Coy Cmdrs are Majors etc etc. When I first joined CTC in '85 the CO (or Commandant) was a Lt. Col. and the Depty was Major. At present we have a Brigadier, 5 Lt. Cols., a RN Captain as Director of Training, more Majors than you can shake a stick and their are enough Captains for two full rugby teams!! And thats just Lympstone!!!
On the flip side the Corps is very short of JNCO's. There were 90 (yes thats right ) on the last Junior Command Course and the next one starts soon. Mind you this was made worse because they binned 9 on one day in week 8(!) because they were caught in possesion of a GPS. The branch in which I work is 52% short of Marines. In '85 pass outs (KSPO's) were almost weekly. They now happen every 5 weeks. You work it out. The Corps will be 600 short by Dec 05
As a general rule of thumb it is correct to say the smaller the branch the slower promotion. The largest branch in the Corps presently makes Lance Cpls at around the 4 year mark. But if you don't want promotion be a Bugler, Tels Tech or a CI