Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
My company sergeant major (CSM) had 16 years experience (excluding his pre-18 year old 'Junior Leader' experience (two years)). This means that he is on the 'glide path' for WO1 and has picked up promotion first time every time. Some CSMs will have more experience, very very few will have less (and I cannot recall any in my experience). The enlisted soldier career progression aims to get the soldier to WO1 (Warrant Officer Class One) at the 20 year point and CSMs will have to do at least one further appointment before they are able to be boarded for WO1.

Not sure how that compares with Canadian or US equivalents.
To give you an idea, a Canadian CSM would typically have 20+ years of service. Due to our common heritage, I'm willing to bet career paths are almost identical between the two only in Canada guys will spend more time in each rank level (thus longer exposure on the "experience curve"). Canada does not have any overarching circumtances like the Brit career progression models or the US Up-or-Out system.


Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
Some of the best infantry SNCOs I have ever served with have been German. Experienced and well trained, they are often found commanding platoons. I got the impression that the Germans educated (professionally) their SNCOs much better then we (the Brits) did.
Interesting - I have no experience with the German Army. The only thing I've heard is anecdotal from early ISAF experience. It isn't flattering (and they probably think the same thing about us), but it's probably the end result of an oversized multi-national HQ in Kabul with nothing to really do. I don't know if its still the case (Fuchs?) but don't German NCOs command 2 of the 3 Platoons in a Company?