I served as an officer in the UK Royal Air Force from 1990 to 2007 (engineering rather than aircrew) so I think I can offer some comments on this.
Firstly, eighty years is a very long time in the cultural evolution of any organisation, even one as conservative as the military. Also, bear in mind that the culture of obedience to authority means, ironically, that the military can change its culture quite fast if it is simply ordered to do so. A good example is the attitude towards homosexuality in the UK armed forces. When I was a junior officer, the RAF police would quite vigorously investigate rumours that an airman or officer was gay. In the late 1990s the policy was formally reversed, and by the time I left the RAF I was serving with officers who were in openly gay relationships.
In respect of cross-rank relationships, when I joined these were forbidden. It was actually the rule that if an airman and airwoman were married, and one of them was commissioned, the other was automatically discharged. That policy was dropped in the early 1990s, to be replaced by one that they would be posted to different bases. For an officer to enter into a relationship with an airman/airwoman used to be serious misconduct; that was later replaced with the rule that they could not be in the same command chain.
To try to answer some of your questions in terms of how things are now.
- There aren't currently 'special peacekeeping units'; this is a role regular combat units are rotated through if required. You could say that the Army introduces them, but unless there is a special peacekeeper career role - which seems unlikely - it would be more likely that individual soldiers would be posted in and out of it.
- Military Police is a separate job trade from combat soldier. My experience was that such internal transfers can be done (the old-fashioned term was 're-mustering') but are rare, because you have to train someone as if he or she is a new recruit, and you end up with a soldier/airman/sailor who is inexperienced in their new job, but relatively senior compared with other recent trainees. (It can happen: I once trained a sergeant RAF Regiment gunner who had been transferred to comms technician because an injury left him unfit for his previous role, but he had actually done that job before joining the military, so he wasn't coming in completely fresh. Actually, that's a thought - perhaps your sergeant spent some time as a police officer or even a PCSO before joining up, so has some prior relevant experience.)
- At present, promotion from captain to major is selective rather than by time in rank. A mid-seniority captain could well be selected for major in the course of three years. Being a maverick isn't a bar to promotion, so long as the person in question has achieved results and not got terminally up his or her CO's nose in the process. There is a tendency in peacetime to promote the adequately competent at the expense of the risk-taking nonconformist (see this book for a really good examination of the effect of this on the Royal Navy in the Victorian era) and promotion boards are often warned not to hold the odd transgression against otherwise promising young officers.
(As an aside, I remember a presentation from a personnel officer who used to manage promotion boards, which quoted a comment written by a base commander on the annual report on a junior pilot under his command. "Come the war, Flying Officer X will win a chestful of medals. If captured, he will make the life of the POW Camp Commandant an utter living hell. Until such time, he practises on me.")
Firstly, eighty years is a very long time in the cultural evolution of any organisation, even one as conservative as the military. Also, bear in mind that the culture of obedience to authority means, ironically, that the military can change its culture quite fast if it is simply ordered to do so. A good example is the attitude towards homosexuality in the UK armed forces. When I was a junior officer, the RAF police would quite vigorously investigate rumours that an airman or officer was gay. In the late 1990s the policy was formally reversed, and by the time I left the RAF I was serving with officers who were in openly gay relationships.
In respect of cross-rank relationships, when I joined these were forbidden. It was actually the rule that if an airman and airwoman were married, and one of them was commissioned, the other was automatically discharged. That policy was dropped in the early 1990s, to be replaced by one that they would be posted to different bases. For an officer to enter into a relationship with an airman/airwoman used to be serious misconduct; that was later replaced with the rule that they could not be in the same command chain.
To try to answer some of your questions in terms of how things are now.
- There aren't currently 'special peacekeeping units'; this is a role regular combat units are rotated through if required. You could say that the Army introduces them, but unless there is a special peacekeeper career role - which seems unlikely - it would be more likely that individual soldiers would be posted in and out of it.
- Military Police is a separate job trade from combat soldier. My experience was that such internal transfers can be done (the old-fashioned term was 're-mustering') but are rare, because you have to train someone as if he or she is a new recruit, and you end up with a soldier/airman/sailor who is inexperienced in their new job, but relatively senior compared with other recent trainees. (It can happen: I once trained a sergeant RAF Regiment gunner who had been transferred to comms technician because an injury left him unfit for his previous role, but he had actually done that job before joining the military, so he wasn't coming in completely fresh. Actually, that's a thought - perhaps your sergeant spent some time as a police officer or even a PCSO before joining up, so has some prior relevant experience.)
- At present, promotion from captain to major is selective rather than by time in rank. A mid-seniority captain could well be selected for major in the course of three years. Being a maverick isn't a bar to promotion, so long as the person in question has achieved results and not got terminally up his or her CO's nose in the process. There is a tendency in peacetime to promote the adequately competent at the expense of the risk-taking nonconformist (see this book for a really good examination of the effect of this on the Royal Navy in the Victorian era) and promotion boards are often warned not to hold the odd transgression against otherwise promising young officers.
(As an aside, I remember a presentation from a personnel officer who used to manage promotion boards, which quoted a comment written by a base commander on the annual report on a junior pilot under his command. "Come the war, Flying Officer X will win a chestful of medals. If captured, he will make the life of the POW Camp Commandant an utter living hell. Until such time, he practises on me.")
(continues)
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