02-14-2007, 01:25 AM
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.
