# To be an officer in the US military will any 4-year degree suffice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2023, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-be-an-officer-in-the-us-military-will-any-4-year-degree-suffice/994856 "2023-12-20T04:15:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 43
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2023, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-be-an-officer-in-the-us-military-will-any-4-year-degree-suffice/994856/43 "2023-12-24T12:27:24Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I thought it was “up or out.” That officers must get promoted every now and then or else be booted to make room for new talent to climb up the ladder, lest an officer hog a certain rank/position forever. We had a long thread about that. I’ll see if I can hunt it up. Meanwhile, the very short answer is “yeah, kinda”. If you don’t make a promotion you’ll have a limit on how many more years you can remain in the service. But it’s NOT at all like like “You just flunked your one chance at promotion; you’re FIRED!” ETA: Here you go. 90 posts from last year. > [@Naval officer: Up, or out?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/naval-officer-up-or-out/965100): > > I just read this in an article about the new Top Gun movie. In the three decades-plus since Top Gun , Maverick ([Tom Cruise](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a40058402/tom-cruise-top-gun-2-interview-maverick/)) hasn’t advanced further than Captain in the Navy. It’s implied that it’s down to his fittingly maverick ways… Due to injuries, my Naval career was ended before I had the chance to start it. I’ve heard that in the military, it’s ‘Up or Out’. That is, if an officer doesn’t continue to advance in grade – passed over to many times, for example – s/he can’t remain in the s… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-be-an-officer-in-the-us-military-will-any-4-year-degree-suffice/994856)._