I've read a couple articles where a pilot, usually around Lt. Colonel, is forced to either take a promotion that removes him from the cockpit (or aviation altogether) or retire.
Is this a rare occurrance, or business as usual? If common place, why does the Corps ship all that experience out the door rather than let it be passed on to newbies?
I'm sure others have better responses than this but in my "antiquated" experience, our Marine Air Group commanders were bird colonels and flew an aggressive number of combat flight hours.
As far as passing the experience onto newbie's? An O-6 passes their experience onto the next Group skipper and his squadron commanders (Lt.Col.'s)... who would definitely not be a "newbie".
Being "forced" to take a promotion?? Damm..I hate when that happens........but really, I would say there is some truth to what you are saying... but I would say it depends on the capability/promotability of the Officer and the needs of the Corps.....
This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobTate,
Once you have became a Squadron CO in about year 15 or so they are not going to put you back into another unit to become just a Pilot, think about the problems that would/could cause. Then factor in that each Marine Air Group has 6 to 9 units so the need for Bird Colonels is not that great. If you at your retirement rank and have been a CO then our likely to have a desk job until retirement. What else could you do? But then again Lt Cols can go to 26 years in most case's before being forced to retire, Most go at 22 years from what I've seen...
