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General Leftcourt

I was thinking about the General the other day on how in the movie In the Beginning in 2243 not sure about the date ? as just a general but when we see him again in 2261 in Endgame .He still has the same rank you mean to say in that time period he hasn't received any promtions.? Help I am a little confused here.
 
Well, we don't know his exact rank in In the Beginning. Brigadier General? Major General? Lieutenant General? Nor is his full title given in the series itself. (Full titles are rarely used in ordinary conversations between military personnel. Even a Lt. Commander is normally addressed as "Commander")

Once you're a general, you'll always be some kind of general, even if you do recieve a promotion. You can only become a different grade of general (entitled to wear more stars.) There is no other rank to be promoted to.

Also, the further you move up the chain of command, the fewer slots there are in each rank. So it isn't unusal for a carreer to hit, say, Brigadier General, and never advance beyond that, because not enough people die or retire for everyone else to move up. (Heck, given that top rank positions are so few it isn't unusual today for a man or woman to end a full twenty or twenty-five year career as a Major or Colonel, and nearly all naval carreers end well short of even a Rear Admiral's flag.)

So I don't find anything odd about Lefcourt's career. He almost certainly did get promoted between ItB and the series, if only because so many officers must have been lost with their ships during the war, but he'd always be called "General", so we would have no way to tell. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

(I don't recall - do we ever see him wearing a given number of pips or stars on his uniform? If we do, I'll bet there is one, maybe two, on his ItB uniform, and three or four by S4.)

Regards,

Joe
 
Anther thing to keep in mind is that promotions are always slow in peacetime. After the first flurry of promotions to fill the gaps from the Earth-Minbari War, I imagine things would probably have slowed to a crawl. We have some upward movement, but not a lot. And I'd bet that Leftcourt was one of the absolute top men left in EarthForce by "Endgame."
 
I might be mistaken ... but wasn't he also pulled out of retirement or semi-retirement by the time of that battle? I know he wasn't normally commander of that ship or that fleet but was picked by Clarke because he knew Sheriden. He might have been pretty much out of the action for alot of time between the Earth-Minbari War and the Civil War, brought back maybe during the Civil War ...
 
When it is peacetime Generals and Admirals normally work in office blocks and attend meetings. It is only during wartime that flag officers live in tents and ships. Although they do sometimes attend major exercises.
 
Well, I always thought that Lefcourt was a goon, so maybe he never got a promotion. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Only way up for generals is to get promoted to be one of the joint chiefs perhaps after all this time he is one of them since a least one of joints chiefs we know started an insurection.
 
Why did you think he was a goon? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

He seemed a pretty good general to me... definitely the kind that does the job well plus has earned the respect of his men and women.
 
They should have left the Apollo under the command of the Ace Rimmer look and soundalike, Sheridan would have been toast, nobody beats Ace Rimmer! LOL!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Oh, so i'm not the only one who thought their was a passing resemblance? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Smoke me a kipper...
... I'll be back for breakfast!
 

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