Yes it’s a stupid question, but it occurred to me I really don’t have a clue as to what you need to do other than keep your shoes shined and your nose clean in order to ascend to the top of the military pile. I know that you graduate from an academy, and do as you’re told, but what is it specifically that’s going to get you promoted to the top? Do you have to excel at every job underneath the top ranks to get promoted? In non-wartime - non-combat how would you even measure how well they are doing in their pre-General/Admiral jobs?
What do you need to become a General or Admiral? What separates them from the also-rans?
There’s a lot of ass kissing. You get rated and graded by your superiors throughout your career. After Capt, your promotions are a direct reflection of these evaluation reports. So you need to do your best at not rocking the boat, and doing things exactly the way your boss thinks is best. Do that long enough, keep your indiscipline indicators to a minimum (make sure that soldiers under your command stay out of trouble), keep accountability of sensitive items, and dont do anything stupid to ruin equipment or get soldiers hurt.
A slight nitpick to your OP, astro, but not all flag officers* graduate from a service academy. Some come up through the ranks, starting at E1 and become officers through Officer Candidate School.
In fact, at least one man went from E1 to the top job in his service, CNO of the Navy. ADM Mike Boorda enlisted in the US Navy and was a Petty Officer First Class when selected for OCS. He became the Navy’s top sailor as Chief of Naval Operations until, sadly, he committed suicide while holding that position.
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*Admirals and Generals (O-7 thru O10) are also called flag officers, as they get their own flags.
I know nothing of the topic, but I suspect you are missing the point. In large corporations, for instance, successors are picked by the current bigwig because he knows what the job takes and who can fill the position and do it well. People who hang quiet will not make it to the top.
I don’t know all that much about it either. However having worked with a few Navy admirals I must say that the selection process is pretty good. Those I knew were astute and well educated. They have advanced degrees in many subjects, not all in one person of course, like economics, sociology and the like.
I am quite sure that superior candates are marked in the early stages of their careers as cadets or officer candidate school. Those so marked are given opportunities for choice assignments. Posts such as generals aides so they get an opportunity to see what a general does and how things work. They get assignments to good military schools such as the Navy’s Post Graduate School. They also get scholarships for education in civilian universities. And at all levels, high ranking officers are on the lookout for late-bloomers who might not have shone as cadets but who have developed well.
I believe that the thing that is looked for most is someone who can get things done. Someone who can take an assignment and work on getting the assignment done to the best of his or her ability. Those who look for reasons why the job can’t be done the way it was originally proposed are quickly eliminated.
The pyramid gets awfully thin at the top and I think there is little doubt that political considerations enter into who becomes the Army Chief of Staff or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. However, that is merely selecting one from among a number of equally qualified aspirants.
You will almost certainly need to have a master’s degree to make it to general or admiral. Getting top grades or the graduate program being a first-rate program is not particularly important, just the degree itself. I think that you’re generally expected to do the degree in your spare time with evening or weekend courses. This is just one of the hurdles you have to jump, and other things are more important in evaluating your chances. Getting a Ph.D. isn’t relevant.
