Army Promotion System Failures

If I could change one thing about the Army I would change the requirements for promoting soldiers. Too many times have I seen soldiers that simply don't know or understand their jobs, who have no leadership skills whatsoever, or who are too lazy to actually perform their jobs get promoted. I believe the Army places too much importance on memorizing specific facts, pt scores, and outward appearance in order to be promoted, but too little importance on how effective they are at their job, their attitude throughout the day, how well they lead others, and whether they are truly motivated to make a difference by performing above and beyond the requirements of their day to day job. I don't see how the Army considers it effective to place a soldier who is inferior at their MOS or leadership skills in charge of a soldier or soldiers who may constantly outperform them and in some cases take charge even though they aren't the appointed leader. While I understand the importance of the things the Army currently looks at for promotions I think they should look more deeply into the other requirements I mentioned above. A recommendation from their supervisor isn't always effective either as it may be tainted with favoritism. If the Army modified its promotion process to include MOS skills tests and more personal interviews then the effectiveness of a soldier performing proficiently at a higher rank could be better evaluated and the Army would have more experienced, better qualified soldiers in the positions that would make for a better led, more effective force.

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