Hey, I’m March '93 myself. That’s officially makes me the Old Man of my reserve unit. Who knows what the kids these days are doing?
I’d say “get off my lawn” if any of the grass were showing above the current flooding… 
That’s interesting- I’d have thought that armor would be more represented among the top brass, considering the prominent role that armored warfare has had in most Israeli wars after 1948.
They are. I suspect **Alessan ***meant *“Armor” rather than “Airborne” (especially since he specifically mentions the one pilot as an exception to the rule). Which would IMO make the statement correct.
But he’ll need to clarify for himself.
Nope. By airborne I meant paratroopers, which are strongly represented in the IDF General Staff (including the current Chief). To date, no tanker has ever held the top spot.
Armor is respected, but the cult of the elite infantryman still reigns supreme.
I think it’s rather different in the US. The basic qualifications for being an officer are a bachelor’s degree, officer training, US citizenship, and favorable medical and background check evaluations. Those who go to a Service Academy or do ROTC at a non-military school (like Virginia Tech) get their bachelor’s degree courses and officer training at the same time and graduate with a bachelor’s degree and a commission (Is it possible to complete the program and graduate but be denied a commission?). Those who go the OCS route already have a college degree and they pretty much just need the officer training, which includes Boot Camp and OCS.
??? Laskov, Bar-Lev and Elazar (Dado) were all Tankers.
You’re right that since Dado in 1973 no Armor Chief has been appointed Chief of Staff (just like I expect it will be a while until we get another pilot after Halutz…) – but through Yom Kippur it was roughly 2:1 Infantry/Armor
I know that at one time it was barred in the Indian Army. Not sure if that’s the case still. Well not barred, but you had to be released from your enlistment and then apply afresh to the service academy, and qualify on your own merits meeting the criteria. In Pakistan we have had a least one army chief who started out as a private soldier and from my days as an army brat I recall at at least two of my fathers collegues who were “rankers”;started off as enlisted and both IIRC made general. But from what my father tells me, while the army did not exactly discourage men/women from applying so it was uncommon and echoing what others have said, experienced enlisted men saw the officer route as being a step down in actual.
Au contraire - the three you mentioned may have made their names in Armor, but they started out as Palmachniks, which is light infantry by definition.
Heh, I see the Red-Black feud is strong with this one 
I asked a couple Navy Master Chiefs and Warrant Officers about this. They were all retired; this was in the mid-70’s. They all said about the same things: they’d had opportunities to do OCS; after finishing they’d be Lieutenants (equivalent of Army Captain). Or perhaps it was LTJG (Army Lieutenant). They’d had positions of respect that they’d attained after long terms of service, and didn’t want to “start over” in the pack with a bunch of young guys. They said that most who jumped were people with serious ambitions to be skippers, even if it was a smaller craft, or other specific intentions. As mentioned above, it would have involved a big time commitment and a pay cut, with no guarantee they’d advance along with their new peers. They knew people who had done well by doing it, as well as people who wished they hadn’t.