12 months or 18?

As an Army logistics officer, I am required to have 12-18 months of company command in order to complete my “key developmental billet” requirement and be eligible for promotion to major. One of the things I've always wondered, though, is why someone would do 18 months when 12 would apparently work just fine.

Considering how stressful my command time has been, it seems like asking how long you'd like to stay in a POW camp. Would you like 18 months, or will 12 be enough for you?

Depending on what your priorities are, you could go either way. According to branch managers, 12 months is just fine for becoming "branch qualified." At that point, you become useful to them again because you're open to whatever assignments they have to offer you.

This would also work well for you if your plan is to move on to some other career field. You may be better off calling it quits and moving on to some other job sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, there’s the promotion board to think about. Just because you’ve completed your KD billet doesn’t mean you’re competitive for promotion. And when the promotion board is looking to whittle down 20 percent of the captains that are up for major, the captains that have only 12 months of command may be the ones who get sidelined.

For me, it's a hard choice, but my goals for the unit will require at least 15 months to realize. The full 18 months would take me to January 2016, which would keep me busy up to about three months before my scheduled return to the continental U.S. In fact, depending on the assignment schedule, I may even leave Korea a little bit early.

And if I stay the full duration, three months would be about perfect. With about 75 days of vacation built up by that point, it would be the ideal time to recover my wits.