ABSTRACT
If a civilian organization needs to take a new direction, it has the luxury of seeking a chief executive officer or president from outside the organization. Bringing in outside leadership offers a prime opportunity to redirect an organization’s course and establish new procedures and processes that would never have been possible under either the prior leader or a subordinate successor of that leader. The branches of the military have no such luxury. With but few exceptions (e.g., physicians), all officers accept commissions at the lowest level and must have “their tickets punched” in a variety of assignments at each career step. This career progression requires moving through sequential selection boards (for promotions and assignments) to increasingly higher levels of leadership. Thus, decisions made today in selecting, classifying, and assigning officer candidates will be felt continuously for the next 35 years as today’s officer candidates attain successively higher positions in the military.
