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Show FROM PRIVATE TO GENERAL Enlisted Man in U. S. Army Has Nine Steps to Climb Before He Arrives at the Top. The private soldier, standing at the bottom of the army stairs, has nine steps to- climb before he arrives at the top, a general. His first promotion promo-tion . is to corporal and the next to sergeant. He is elevated to these grades by his regimental commander. The next step to a commission bearing bear-ing the president's name was formerly former-ly the most difficult to negotiate, but thanks to the army's pressing need of officers it is now fairly easy to take for men who honestly possess the qualities necessary , to make the right kind of officers, says Richard Smith in Leslie's. After he becomes a second lieutenant lieuten-ant time and opportunity will give the soldier his first lieutenancy and later a captaincy. Next he becomes a major. Directly above the major stands the lieutenant colonel, who is one gra.de below a colonel. At the top, for final reward, is a general's star. . Easy as the ascent seems to the laymen, a superficial examination of the facts will prove it a difficult climb, but by no means a forlorn hope. Witness the fact that one of the most caste-controlled armies in the world, the Briiish, has at its head a general in chief who began as a ranker. Even on a peace footing enlisted men of ability in our army have been able to secure commissions through study and application to duty. On a war basis this opportunity is much greater. |