Ranks and Mistakes

[Ace]

waiting two years would make it seven years between promotions. seven. years.

No it wouldn't... unless your using some advanced form of mathematics I've never heard of it to do your calculations. But for the rest of us it would only be 3 years between her last promotion in Season 8. Adding another two years to that fact would make it 5 years not 7 years.

How the heck do you get seven years?

She was promoted to Lt. Col at the beginning of Season 8. Therefore she had all of Season 8,9,10 to be a light colonel. Then I presume at the beginning of season 4 of Atlantis she is being promoted to Colonel.

Ace

[ParadoxRealities]

No it wouldn't... unless your using some advanced form of mathematics I've never heard of it to do your calculations. But for the rest of us it would only be 3 years between her last promotion in Season 8.

How the heck do you get seven years?

She was promoted to Lt. Col at the beginning of Season 8. Therefore she had all of Season 8,9,10 to be a light colonel. Then I presume at the beginning of season 4 of Atlantis she is being promoted to Colonel.

Ace

ah ha! i thought you meant two more years as a major before becoming a light col. got it.

[Ace]

ah ha! i thought you meant two more years as a major before becoming a light col. got it.

Ahh no... Not what I meant. The time between major and lt. col was perfect... and ideally before being promoted to Colonel I would have liked for her to remain a lt. colonel for another year or two.

But seeing as she is being promoted to take over a command, I can agree with that decision. As it is common to promote somebody to a higher rank for that person to take command of a unit or base. It is most recognizable in the general officer ranks... but it still makes sense in Carter's situation.

Ace

[ParadoxRealities]

since when is five years perfect TIG?

[Ace]

since when is five years perfect TIG?

Well... if you check out the Air Force biographies on their official site. You will see that most generals have roughly 5 years TIG as a Lt. Colonel some more some less. But the rough average is 5 years.

Of course... alot of people spend many more years at Lt. Colonel simply because they aren't going to be promoted beyond that. But I'm assuming they are fast tracking Sam to General especially as of this recent promotion to Colonel. As they obviously have felt for a while that she is one of their best and brightest.

Typically though I would say the TIG for Lt. Col is 5-6 years... more evidence of this is can be found here:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/promo...fficerprom.htm

Ace

[ParadoxRealities]

Typically though I would say the TIG for Lt. Col is 5-6 years... more evidence of this is can be found here:

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/promo...fficerprom.htm

Ace

i did it again. i meant O-4 to O-5. regardless, we're i think we're talking about two different things. you're talking about when people actually get promoted (i.e. line numbers), i'm talking about when they're selected (i.e. really fast tracked). my bad. i think i'll stop now.

[Ace]

i did it again. i meant O-4 to O-5. regardless, we're i think we're talking about two different things. you're talking about when people actually get promoted (i.e. line numbers), i'm talking about when they're selected (i.e. really fast tracked). my bad. i think i'll stop now.

LOL... ok, I guess we need to really be specific when we post to each other from now on!

Ace

[RealmOfX]

That's funny... because that's exactly why I kept watching it after I saw the pilot! I heard the Air Force was officially involved with it...

As for Carter's promotion... ideally I would have liked for TPTB wait another year or two before promoting her, but because they are promoting her to take over a command I can deal with it. Alot of people are promoted to take command of a certain units, heck some are promoted just because they were KIA.


Ace

You've said this several times, now in all that I have read to date it has only been said that Sam would be promoted and not a single solitary thing about the why. Do you have other info or are you making an assumption?

Also you don't just get promoted because they are giving you a new job you have to be eligible for it in the first place.

[jenks]

She's not getting promoted just to take over Atlantis if that's what you mean, because she'll be a Colonel in the movies too which are set before Atlantis season 4.

[Agent_Dark]

You've said this several times, now in all that I have read to date it has only been said that Sam would be promoted and not a single solitary thing about the why. Do you have other info or are you making an assumption?

Also you don't just get promoted because they are giving you a new job you have to be eligible for it in the first place.

They're symbiotic. The new job would require the promotion and to be promoted you'd obviously be eligible for the promotion which would mean you would be taking on new responsibilities (such as a new job).

[Ace]

You've said this several times, now in all that I have read to date it has only been said that Sam would be promoted and not a single solitary thing about the why. Do you have other info or are you making an assumption?

Also you don't just get promoted because they are giving you a new job you have to be eligible for it in the first place.

Agent Dark said it pretty well... let's stick with what that!

- Ace

[SylvreWolfe]

In his blog Joe M mentioned the promotion for Carter to be a full bird in both movies.

Technically speaking I don't think she needs the promotion. However, I think TPTB are doing it to avoid the BS they faced with the LTC Mitchell versus LTC Carter fiasco. And I think they are doing it to make it up to Tapping for having a new guy come in and have his character outrank her character. Which, I believe, she had issues with too.

[jenks]

I bet they promote Cam too

[g8tr]

You know, I think this topic mainly bothers those of us who served, but rank insignia is not that hard to figure out. I mean not only in the Shroud, but in the two Atlantis episodes where O'Neill stars were wrong, sheesh!

The one that makes me think "huh?" the most is poor Maj. Davis. Unless things have changed since I was in, it's "up or out" for promotions, and Davis was a major for how many years? And at the Pentagon, no less, a Major is really nobody! He'd have been kicked out if he was unpromotable that long.

For those who think the general's stars came too quickly to O'Neill, just want to point out that historically in war time promotions can happen fast. WWII, Eisenhower went from LTC to 4-star in two years, I believe it was. I think the case could be made for O'Neill, as well as for Carter making bird colonel, that it was a war-time promotion.

[SylvreWolfe]

I think it was Patton who went from LTC to 4 star. I know that Patton was a LTC and way back when these types of promotions to general were temporary for war time.

And I think you are right g8tr, it really only bothers those of us who served. I know when I bring it up I get bashed by the exact same people who will argue about time travel, time dilation, aliens, alien tech, etc like that stuff is real. But don't dare bring up the one thing that is real, the use of the REAL USAF, because it is *just a tv show* and we should just *accept it* because *anything is allowed in scifi.*