Officers Rank Question SA

[eclancy]

Gentlemen,
This is an odd one for you new guys.
We all know that Earl McFarland was the Commanding Officer at SA twice. Major Earl McFarland was in Command from Aug. 8, 1923 to June 17, 1924 and again as Colonel, from June 11, 1942 to July 31, 1943.
This one should give you some work to do.
Between the World Wars promotion in the Regular Army Officer Corps came very slowly and was used very correctly. If you were a “Light Bird” you were called, in orders or letters, Lt. Col. So if you received a letter from a Col., you knew he was a “Full Bird.” The same is true of the General Officer’s ranks. You just didn’t say General so—and—so, you stated his rank. One star was for a Brigadier General, two stars was a Major General, three stars was a Lt Gen., and four stars was a Full General, or just General. Many of these Officers knew each other. Those who didn’t had heard of these Officers. Now to the point of the question: An Ordnance file dated Oct. 4, 1938, shows that Earl McFarland is a Brigadier General in rank, and also is Acting Chief of Ordnance, At this point in time he is right there as the M1 Garand is in early production. The file doesn’t say acting Brigadier General, which could be correct, but just Brigadier General and Acting Chief of Ordnance. His second Commanding Officer at SA is in the RANK COLONEL. It’s not a brevet rank, one issued for gallantry on the battlefield. My Question is does anyone know why the drop in rank ? Just seeing what you guys think.
Without input from you guys no one learns anything Try to put in some info/question and we can learn more of the M1's History.



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Thanks again for taking the time and effort to read this data. I hope you have learned a little of the history of the M1 Garand.
Clancy
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[ArkansasHunter]

Gosh eclancy I surely don't know but I will keep checking back to read the answear.
This is cool stuff !!!...A.H

[Ben Hartley]

The photo at the Springfield NHS of Earl McFarland taken during (or at least illustrating) his 1942-3 tenure shows him wearing a Brigadier General's single star.

Here's the link; scroll down about 75-80% of the page.
Springfield Armory National Historic Site - Commandants & Superintendents of Springfield Armory (U.S. National Park Service)

BTW, the NHS website indicates that Earl McFarland was, indeed, a Colonel -- i.e., a "full bird." Why the discrepancy? Damfino.

Ben Hartley

[rfc357]

Possible explanations:

One or the other reference is incorrect.

Temporary vs. permanent rank. Until about 20 years ago, regular officers were promoted twice. The first time was to "temporary" rank, the second time to "permanent" rank. If promoted to temporary rank, you assumed the rank, and got the pay. If congress failed to pass grade relief, you reverted to permanent rank, unless your permanent rank had caught up with your temporary rank. The system was actually a lot more complicated than this, as we had several parallel promotion systems running at the same time (regular, reserve, ROPA, spot, etc.) Some of this confusion still remains with the practice of "frocking" an officer to the next rank upon announcement of promotion. A colonel could be frocked to BG, but then revert to colonel if he subsequently got a transfer into a billet that was not authorized for frocking. Oh, and permanent professors at the military academies serve in the grade of colonel, but are retired as BGs. Don't complain to me if you find this confusing. The interwar Army probably had even more complications.

[kygunsmith]

It's been a long time but didn't it also depend on the units' table of organization in the unit . I can't remember but if A light colonel, or even a major, might find himself with a brigadier acting rank when commanding, by attrition, a brigade of even 2 rgst's. When the system caught up he would be replaced by a guy with a star and revert to col. or lt.col. or maj. One colonel I knew was CO of 2 regiments because of casualties, and had a temp rnk of BG. He got the next BG spot on the Table of ??? (When he rejoined his command they merely mae the "ex-CO" as an exec officer. This bumped down the line.