dreamrider wrote:KNick wrote:... This posting will happen sooner rather than later, as the GSN has been grooming her for flag rank since graduation.
....
No well run military service (and this includes any protagonist side navy in any Weber universe) "grooms x for flag rank from graduation."
It is a persistent, pernicious myth.
This was not even true in the most purchase-driven, patronage rife days of the Royal Navy. (There is perhaps slightly more reason to accuse the British Army of the Iron Duke's era of some of this - Lord Cardigan got in there somehow.)
Grooming for high rank most certainly DOES occur, in almost every service. Indeed, it is generally viewed, or even codified as a DUTY of senior officers, for the sake of the future of their service.
But it does not occur before the younger officer in question has shown multiple aspects of ability. Otherwise it is a waste, or a crapshoot, or worst of all a net negative for the service, and senior officers KNOW THAT!
The earliest it is reasonable to begin seeing someone "groomed" is near the end of their first command, what ever level that occurs at in their particular service/environment. In my particular service, the US Army, perhaps about the time an officer reached O-4.
In looking at officers with LESS experience than that, the evaluation motivation leans more to correcting the fixable flaws of young officers, giving OPPORTUNITIES to show their mettle, and winnowing out those who just aren't cut out for the service.
Now I recognize that this is just one ex-officer's opinion, reinforced by the guidance of my seniors over the years on how THEY looked on their part in subordinates career development.
I would be very interested to see comment from other current and former military fans on how they perceive this mentoring and development process works.
dreamrider
Well, as the Talbott subseries makes clear, those officers who serve as flag lieutenants tend to be those officers whom the Admiralty in its infinite wisdom think demonstrate the potential for flag rank later in their careers. Given that we haven't really seen Gwen in action yet, I can't verify it in his case, but Helen Zilwicki, Jr's aptitude for both tactics and command has been amply demonstrated.
And we also have this quote from Naomi Kaplan in Storm From the Shadows when she offers Abigail the tac officer's slot on Tristram:
"I'm not Duchess Harrington!" Abigail protested. "I don't have anywhere near her record!"
"And she wasn't 'Duchess Harrington' at the time, either," Kaplan replied. "That's my point. She was given the opportunity to achieve what she achieved because of the ability she'd already demonstrated. I'm offering you this slot for the same reason. There's nothing wrong with pulling strings as long as the result is to put the right officer in the right billet at the right time, and if I didn't think that was what was happening here, I wouldn't have made the offer. You know that."
So in a sense, I would say that it's definitely canon in the RMN for exceptionally gifted officers - like Abigail or Helen, or even Honor in her early career - to be "groomed" for flag rank in that their superiors have already noted something extraordinary about their talents and intend to put the junior officers in question in places where they can demonstrate their competence.
And I would argue that selection for The Crusher is its own kind of grooming; I would bet that only those who have already demonstrated their aptitude would be asked to go through it. (Which makes me wonder about Andrea Jaruwalski - did she ever go through it, or will she be a staff officer forever?)
That said, while certain individuals - like Honor - will have caught the eye of their superiors even from their Academy days, RFC has also hammered home the point that native talent is only a small part of the equation, the much larger part being seasoning, time, and experience. The most tactically gifted officer in the universe wouldn't be able to go straight from the Academy to the captain's chair.
dreamrider wrote:roseandheather wrote:...MOLLY DeLANEY AND ALLEN HIGGINS. ...
Y'know, I was scrolling up from the bottom of a thread page...
...and I got as far as the above line...
...and I KNEW who had to be the poster!
dreamrider
...oh, GET LOST.
