You mean tougher than the last several years of relaxed requirements?

I remember when an E-4 had to go to PLDC (now I guess it is the "warrior leader's course"?) in order to be eligible for E-5. That was relaxed. Then BNCOC completion was not necessary for E-6 - only PLDC. Ditto the shifting of requirements for ANCOC. Was this temporary? Or was this an enduring policy that continued after I ETS'd? If that is the standard from which promotions are being made "tougher" then it sounds like we're just going back to the previous standards.

At the time, those changes made sense. Some units were deployed and some were't, creating the potential for "haves" among the non-deployers and "have-nots" among the deployers, which would have been ass backwards. Now that we're all on an even field again, I think it worth reconsidering (not that we should necessarily conclude that the old ways were right).

I just hope that the debate does not lose sight of the checklist, due to too much focus on individual checkblocks. The point of these NCOES excursions is to provide a professional education. What the courses teach is far more important than where they fall on a Soldier's timeline as he moves up in rank.

I hope that they also make Ranger School tougher, seeing as how I went through the last hard class nearly 10 years ago. They let people wear boots now. Unbelievable.