Air Force Major shoulder boards

[Riley1965]

I was just reading through Colonel Fedorov's service records. Aside from the 3-month Jr. Lt's Courses the only other school mentioned was the Far East Motor school in 1961 at which time he was a Lt. Colonel. ODD?:confused:

:confused: Doc

[January]

Not necessarily. Like I said, it was possible to get promoted to a new position (usually to fill a vacancy) and then later have your rank increased accordingly. Considering that he was in the Far East Military District, it seems reasonable that he could have advanced that far simply due to officers above him jumping at posts elsewhere whenever the opportunity arose. Graduation from an intermediate-level academy wasn't mandatory to advance to field grade, just highly advisable. I am not sure whether generals were required to have attended higher staff academies, but I'm inclined to suspect that they were unless under exceptional circumstances.

[Riley1965]

January,
Thanks!! It makes sense considering he spent his entire career in the Far East District.

:thumbsup :thumbsup Doc

[January]

Incidentally, by coincidence I happened to be reading a book that was talking about academies last night. It said that you couldn't make colonel without attending intermediate-level academy and that you couldn't make general without attending higher-staff academy, but, unless I'm badly mistaken, I seem to recall reading about exceptions having occasionally been made. Again, I could be wrong, and don't want to have to thumb through piles of Soviet Military Review looking for some bio that I barely recall.

The book I was looking at last night said that academy courses could be taken by correspondance, which I don't think that I knew. Apparantly it took an extra year if you went that route (for the most part, intermediate-level academies were 2-3 years and higher-staff academies were five years).

There were also some pictures taken at an intermediate-level academy. Looked like most of the students were majors, with the occasional lieutenant colonel or captain. All of the instructors appeared to be colonels.

[Riley1965]

January,
Thank You for the information!!! I have all of the ODMs, but two orders, and full research and biography for a Lt. Colonel. I'll make sure to check his service record for an academy.

:thumbsup :thumbsup Doc