Earning Army "Points": The Arts and Reality

Cafe Society
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I am posting this here since a previous Army question sparked from pop culture got bumped here, even though the question was factual. So, here goes: In both Catch-22 and MASH, they mention having to earn “points” or “credits” to get out of the Army (during wartime, anyhow). Why wasn’t a straight measure of time in service good enough to determine when someone should be honorably discharged (or, whatever)?

As I recall, in Catch-22, the Air Corps continued to up the number of required missions flown before discharge. Similarly in MASH, the surgeons had some threshold to meet that continued to taunt them like dangling the unreachable carrot before the horse. So, what’s the full story about these “points” or “credits”?

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The “Full Story”? Good luck on that.

You would earn points for length of service. You would also earn points for time in combat. And overseas vs stateside duty. Medals/decorations would earn you points also. For WWII, you were in for the duration. Points only mattered after VE / VJ day. As for “Catch 22”, remember that was fiction. The Air Corps wasn’t raising the required number of missions, it was the wing commander.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Service_Rating_Score