Despite my somewhat cynical last post, I do have a (albeit small...) degree of sympathy for Manning DOs. They're not helped when their own rules are openly flouted to let one of the 1-2%'ers ignore 'rules' laid down for the rest of us to advance smoothly. It can't be easy when a VSO does a bit of 'Career Management' on behalf of an ex-PSO or fellow VSO's progeny. Perhaps by coming clean over the Exec v 'Mong' stream these episodes will be more transparent. What truly worries me is that we are supposed to be getting better at Assurance, Acquisition and Airworthiness; to truly gain competency (and retain it...) in these areas Manning will not only have to understand the needs and issues (tricky if you're an ambitious 'generalist' staff officer) but identify an, admittedly truncated, promotion path to OF5/1* to keep highly qualified specialists motivated (and in).
Shytorque,
I only ever got a first choice by pointing out to Manning that I was the only qualified person for the job available in the right time...the computer system hadn't flagged it....