BATTLEFIELD PROMOTIONS, what are your thoughts?

Ranger that Sir! I would love to hear a real example of when someone has received one. I've only heard rumors so far.  I agree with your thoughts, it should not be awarded for "Unethical" reasons. But, who is the judge on that?

Hey Sir, I have a couple of 'historical' annecdotes . . . The first relates a story my father shared of a retired USAF Major he saw in clinic that remarked on some of the 'I love me' things my father had on his walls, and noted that like himself, my father was also prior enlisted (in dad's case, USMC, 1963-1969). The airman went on to regale dad with the fact that he was in a tower (at an undisclosed location) when a certain airborne command post was about to depart and was light one crew member. As it happened, this airman, then a technical sergeant (E6), was qualified to operate the airborne terminal and so he was 'voluntold' to depart with the ACP. Interestingly, POTUS was embarked on this particular flight and the Pilot in Command was bent that he did not have an 'all commissioned officer' crew and wanted to further delay the flight until that could be remedied. Apparently POTUS became aware of this and said "no problem, make him an officer' and the PIC duly noted in his log that POTUS had directly commissioned TSGT 'X' to 2ndLT USAF and the flight departed as scheduled. Some weeks later, the TSGT was summoned to his Commander's office to be sworn in as a 2ndLT, the direct appointment orders having made it through channels, the rest as they say is history. The second story comes of a unique episode, circa 1990, when the SMP cadets of the GA 24th Mechanized were initially 'commissioned' for Desert Shield/Storm, said commissions were then reversed and those same SMPs were activated as SGTs and deployed with thier units to NTC (48th BDE) and did not go down range, a significant personal event for all involved - North Georgia is a unique school like that, hurrah!

Major Weiss,

It would be on the order of the MSM and the BSM. I'm not going to get into semantics as I am sure you know the differences between them already. The same idea should be applied to the "Battlefield Promotion". The guard is a bit different though when it comes to those types of promotions. You can Battlefield Promote all day long, but if there are not any slots in the unit to support that rank, the state will make that Soldier remove it as soon as they return from OCONUS.

While overseas I was the unit's S1 and my commander wanted to give one to a SPC who did some great work and by great I mean same LIFE SAVING work. The issue was that our state told us that there was no slot in the state to support the promotion so once he returned stateside he would be made to remove the rank and would be reduced back to SPC without recoupment. 

Sir, as you know, at least in the Army, the authority for promotion through to the rank of SS (E6) rests with the BDE CDR. SFC (E7) is the first centralized NCO promotion. All other things aside, a CDR at any level can waive TIS / TIG (one or the other, usually not both) and so long as a soldier has met his/her gates for NCODP / Soldier skills, are in compliance with AR 600-9, are qualified with weapon, APFT, and not otherwise flagged, they can be promoted. I certainly concur, meritorious promotion is a useful tool and when properly used is a real morale boost for a command.