One other comment I’ll make - the draw down in the early 90s gutted both the Navy and AF pipeline for years to come.
Add on that there are more admirals then ships in the Navy and likely more Generals than AF Bases in the AF and you quickly realize that we have gone from performance jobs to administrative bureaucracy from a structural force standpoint.
Op tempo is up, equipment is aged, personnel are fewer, maintenance is a nice to have, and new programs take forever to deliver.... Stinks of the 1920s/early 30s. Took time to build back up then...be harder now.
“there are more admirals then ships in the Navy”
>Sounds like you assume admirals are senior officers on ships in the Navy. Destroyers, for instance, have Lieutenant Commanders that are captains of ships, hardly admirals. An admiral may be over a squadron of destroyers, and ride a flagship, but they are still not the captain of the particular destroyer they are on.
Not sure about admirals on larger ships, like aircraft carriers. Maybe somebody from an aircraft carrier could tell us.