...a military officer who will never advance past Colonel. (That is he will not become a General.)
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I’ve read that those who don’t play ball w/the cabal never make it to the senior levels, but I was under the impression the promotions stopped with Captain. Maybe some make it past that barrier, only to be stalled at Colonel.
That is super interesting.
I would expect that they can’t make them all play ball because they need the numbers. But I also expect that there are many who they keep an eye on. Maybe only certain officers are “in” on things and those are the ones promoted to certain jobs. Others who are not “in” can be combat leaders (more expendable) or relegated to non-critical jobs (like golf course control officer) but not where the big decisions are made and the plots are hatched.
You have to be careful with the services, Captain USN is the same a Colonel O-6 in the other services. The Captain 0-3 reference is where an officer gets selected to Field-grade or is separated normally. There are plenty of officers that wouldn't 'play ball' with DS and still get promoted. Billet or job description is usually the target. DS is far from omnipotent in this, and the current situation bears this out.