"Bean counters hate warriors. Every time peace breaks out, the scum rises to the top and flushes the good people out of the military."
I was at Ft. Lewis in 1973 when the Army switched to peacetime. The change was instantaneous, and I was disappointed to find out that the flood of officers being discharged seemed to be mostly the aggressive warriors, and the combat commissioned types.
The 73 RIF was rough. Here but for the grace of God.
Right after Vietnam the Army stopped promoting to Major for a couple of years. There was an active list but it just stopped. The RIF looked at things a little differently. There were Captains who already had a promotion number for Major who were RIFed. I knew of two Captains who had spent a year at the Inf Advanced Course followed by two years of degree completion only to be RIFed as they got their degrees at Tampa.
Thanks, we needed that.
Also need to add that the 'rising to the top' was well underway prior to '73. I think there is always an underground of time servers and ticket punching bureaucrats at work in the military and they need to undercut the others even while seeking all the ribbons and ranger tabs the doers and would be doers earned honestly.
"I was disappointed to find out that the flood of officers being discharged seemed to be mostly the aggressive warriors, and the combat commissioned types."
The bean counters were doing the selection, and the only curb on them was the WPPA.