I never met him - but to be brutally honest - when I saw him on the PBS Documentary, I thought he was an insufferable, pompous jerk who made a lousy Commanding Officer. I cringed every time he was on camera. I knew his XO, Dell Bull, who was another pompous jerk. Life in the Black Aces under those two must have been miserable.
This was before the UFO thing came out, but I remain unimpressed.
A data point - nearly every Naval Officer who has command as a Commander (as he did) gets selected for Captain.
CDR Fravor did not.
That speaks volumes.
Yeah, it's one of those forks in the road that determines who's been selected for higher command and who will retire at O-5.
I remember when I was deployed we had a pax jet land and there was all kinds of buzz for a LtCol who was aboard. As a tired tarmac-pounding Capt, I was like whatever, there's plenty of silver oak leaves around this place.
Then it was explained to me that she had made below the zone to both Major and LtCol. That right there is "the anointing" that indicates a flag rank career path has been arranged for you if you don't screw it up. Her appearance at our facility was part of an orientation to a new position at CENTCOM that was no doubt part of the grooming process.
Fravor was likely on that same kind of path, but forgot about the "don't screw it up" part.
One of the most eye opening insights into how senior promotions work was provided by someone I knew who had worked on the personnel board that sees all the 0-6 files shuffling for that first star and saw how the board works up close. Here's what they told me are the most important criteria:
1) Do we know you? (probably 50% of the promotion choice in his estimation)
2) How well do you represent the service? How would you represent the flag ranks in particular? (~30% of the choice)
3) What is your command/service record? (20% or so).
Kind of an epiphany that the majority of the decision seems to have nothing to do with your service record/OPR/OER directly. Rather, it's what those assignments and reviews gave you in terms of opportunities to improve the "do we know you" and such.
So it's no wonder that the 1st Commandant of Cadets I had at a first class cadet later went on to be Chief of Staff. Commandant is a position for the upwardly mobile "fast burners." Unlike the 3- star Superintendent position, which is a "sorry about not getting your 4th star" consolation prize cap to nonetheless impressive career.
