![]() ![]() Indeed, one could enlist or be inducted, go through basic training, advanced training, work ones’ way through the various crew positions in a given armor unit, and, with promotions coming at a rate of one every six months, a not at all unusual rate, starting at 18 one could be a sergeant by 20 and commanding one’s own tank. ![]() Promotions came fast in places of combat. His promotion to lieutenant colonel come through on the day he was shot down and killed in early January 1945 he had turned 24 the previous November. His brother, three years younger, and an Air Corps fighter pilot, a 2d lieutenant of cavalry in May 1942, by the end of 1944 he was a major and a squadron commander. As an aside, I know of one army officer who was a 2d lieutenant platoon commander in June 1940, a captain, company commander in 1943, and in his regiment’s tour of the European countryside from June 1944 to May 1945, still a captain when they came ashore, was moved up to the battalion S-3 slot, was promoted to major, became the battalion XO, then to battalion CO and was promoted to lieutenant colonel as the smoke cleared away. See here.Ī company commander could be as old as 30, but that would be a little unusual with the rapid expansion experienced by the Army and even more so as the effect of casualties caused younger officers to be moved into higher positions. The typical platoon had one tank commanded by the platoon leader (rank – 2d lieutenant), one commanded by the platoon sergeant (rank – staff sergeant), and the remaining three by sergeants. At the company HQ, one tank was commanded by the company commander (rank- Captain) and the other two were commanded by sergeants. Three tanks assigned to the company HQ and five to each of three platoons. The typical US Army enlisted tank commander, and I am only addressing the US Army in this missive, was a sergeant, with eleven of them commanding tanks out of eighteen tanks in the average medium tank company. Tank commander was a matter of rank, not age. ![]()
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