Sir, what branch had only 40 promotions? Smaller branches can be more selective, but if they too are short, then there is a problem. A year or two ago, Field Artillery had around 100 pax left in its most senior CPT year group (for perspective, my FA basic course class had 150). For a larger branch, too few people means everyone moves up, which may not be good.

For the stats you listed, 7 non-deployers since 2001 is bad. The 4 non commanders may not be as big a deal, depending on the branch, and the jobs they did have. The Army, especially combat arms, is still command centric, but is trying to move away for the CS and CSS branches. I'm MI, and will have to fight and kill for a command, and am repeatedly told its nice to have, but not need to have (though I know that is a lie to compensate for too few slots). Not deploying is a big deal. Not commanding, maybe not as much. In support branches, one can probably still be a capable warrior leader without commanding a company (does recruiting or basic training command better prepare leaders than hard staff assignments?).

Quote Originally Posted by Courtney Massengale View Post
On the latest promotion list to O4, out of the 40 selected in my branch (including 2 BZ and 2 DBZ), seven had never been deployed and four did not have a Company Command.

There's your future warrior leaders of the United States Army.