Reply #27: To explain my post [View All]

[wmbrew0206]

"Bn" is Battalion and to achieve Battalion level command means that you have to be selected for it by your superiors who know you and your reputation over an 16 to 20 year period. It is normally the goal of most career officers and they normally retire after it, unless there are hoping to make flag rank.

To achieve a Bn level command, you have to be selected for it by a Command Screening Board. This a very formal process in which you are compared to your peers and the board (normally made up of 1 or 2 Generals/Admirals and 18 or so Colonels/Captains) ranks the officers eligible and if you are high enough on the list, you are given a command. The boards deliberations are secret. McCain's father had already retired and been out of the Navy for about ten years when McCain came up for his board, so there was little chance McCain got his command because the board members were worried about retaliation if he didn't. McCain was given command of a fighter training squadron in 1976. This means he was the Commanding Officer and it was his squadron. According to Wiki, he did a decent job since the squadron received a Meritoriously Unit Citation.

FYI, I don't doubt that McCain's father keep him in at USNA or helped him get into flight school. I've seen General's son pretty much guaranteed infantry, tanks, or arty (sought after MOS's) because of their father's rank. However, it is a completely different thing to interfere or leave something out of an official investigation, which is what would have had to happen if McCain was responsible for the Forestall fire.

As for the other cushy assignments, that is between an officer and his monitor. If you know your monitor and are friends with him you get the better on command assignments. This is where being an academy grad helps you more than a non-academy grad, since there is a better chance your monitor will be an academy grad and will give you the hook up.