History Main / FieldPromotion

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12795131/1/Palinopsia Palinopsia]]" features a variation of this after Jadzia Dax is essentially brought back to life through a complex transporter accident. With Starfleet still trying to sort out the legalities of legally bringing Jadzia Dax back from the dead, Kira Nerys decides to essentially give Jadzia a position in the Bajoran militia, allowing her to resume her role as DS9's science officer until Starfleet can sort out the issues at their end.

** Davish "Pops" Krail, who flies with the callsign "Gold 5" in ''Film/ANewHope'' is the only Y-Wing pilot to survive the first Death Star trench run. When he reports the situation to Red leader, the other pilot refers to him as "Gold Leader". [[RedShirt He doesn't get the chance to celebrate.]]
** Before making his trench run, Red Leader tells Luke to take Wedge and Biggs and stand by in case he fails. Just before he's shot down, Red Leader tells Luke to execute his run, and there's a huge musical cue symbolizing that Luke is now in command of the mission and what's left of Red Squadron.
** One of Darth Vader's trademarks in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. In one scene, [[YouHaveFailedMe he chokes the idiotic Admiral Ozzel]], and immediately addresses Captain Piett as Admiral Piett, [[YouAreInCommandNow putting him in command right then and there]]. And with the previous Admiral ''still choking in the background'', there's a very tacit reminder of the consequences of messing up. Meanwhile, the trap at Cloud City fails, but Vader's reaction is different -- more disappointment and sadness than anger -- so Piett goes on to be one of three Imperial characters to appear in more than one movie in the original trilogy. After all, it was not because of Piett's planning, plus he wasn't a jerk about it. Ozzel wasn't so smart when he decided that [[TooDumbToLive being arrogant to Vader was a smart idea]].
** At the end of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Obi-Wan Kenobi is promoted from Padawan to Jedi Knight without facing the trials after defeating Darth Maul single-handedly.

* The eponymous ''ComicBook/SgtRock'', of course, started out as a buck private, and while many of his actions were considered worthy of promotion, Easy Company's TO was apparently full. Until a certain battle, whereupon as fatalities accumulated, he was promoted to PFC, Corporal, and finally Sergeant in short order. Not how he would have preferred to earn his stripes, to say the least.
* In the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' series ''The Pit'', the eponymous character promotes a cadet to full judge when the kid finds a stack of unpaid parking tickets in Fonzo Bongo's name.
* In ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Star Wars: Empire: To the Last Man]]'' an Imperial Army column gets surrounded by native warriors and faces destruction. As the casualties mount, General Ziering promotes Lieutenant Janek Sunber to Captain and eventually Commander. When Lt. Sunber manages to get back to headquarters the only other surviving officer refuses to verify his promotion and he gets bumped back down to Lieutenant due to the other officer being envious of the man's bravery, competence, and favor with the general - he refuses to verify the field-promotions just to spite him.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Chieftain's Shield'', Caesar orders that the eponymous shield, which was stolen following his victory at Alesia, be found so that he can be carried on it in front of the rebellious Gauls as a symbol of his victory over them. He orders the Prefect of Arverne to find it and every Roman soldier in the city begin desperately searching the numerous coal sheds in town to find it. At the end of the book it turns out Vitalstatistix has it and the town parades in front of Caesar lead by him and Asterix, while the soot-covered Romans are left on the sidelines. Caesar promotes the only two clean soldiers in the city (a drunken Centurion and a slacker Legionnaire), who ducked out of the search, to Prefect and Centurion respectively and leaves, saying that [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain no-one shall ever mention these events or this town in his presence again]].

** In the third book ''Cursor's Fury'' Scipio, [[spoiler:who is an alias for Tavi]], jumps from Third Subtribune Logistica (junior supply officer) to Captain of a Legion is more of of a YouAreInCommandNow but he starts handing out field promotions left, right and center to fill holes in the legion's absolutely shattered command structure. The fourth book reveals that most of them stick too.

* ''Literature/TheWayOfKings'' (first book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): Kaladin saves an army from an ambush partly by doing this. [[BavarianFireDrill Note that as a slave, he has less authority than the horses]].

** Ancillary material later reveals that with the outbreak of the Clone Wars (as depicted in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''), many Jedi Knights are promoted to the rank of Master while Padawans are promoted to the rank of Knight. This is partially to provide leadership for the newly formed Grand Army of the Republic, but also because so many Jedi were killed in the initial battle on Geonosis. The repercussions of this decision would later be explored in media like ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''. Examples include Jedi falling past the DespairEventHorizon due to being unable to reconcile their oaths as peacekeepers with the brutal necessity of war, Jedi suffering HeroicBSOD because they simply weren't prepared for their new positions, and more than a few examples of the PeterPrinciple, where Jedi who are used to functioning as solo operatives or operating in small groups find themselves leading armies numbering thousands of troops.

** Davish "Pops" Krail, who flies with the callsign "Gold 5" in ''Film/ANewHope'' is the only Y-Wing pilot to survive the first Death Star trench run. When he reports the situation to Red leader, the other pilot refers to him as "Gold leader". [[RedShirt He doesn't get the chance to celebrate.]]

** [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-08-17 When an emergency happens]] and Massey (the only judge on payroll) has to recuse himself from a case, he promotes a random [[LawEnforcementInc Sanctum Adroit]] police officer who happened to be in the audience.

** [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-08-17 When an emergency happens]] and Massey (the only judge on payroll) has to recuse himself from a case, he promotes a random Sanctum Adroit soldier who happened to be in the audience.

* George Armstrong Custer was breveted from Lieutenant to Brigadier General during the Civil War, though would [[TooDumbToLive end his career]] as a Colonel.
** This happened a lot in the Civil War, because the Union Army was vastly larger than the Regular US Army before and after the war. Many career officers who lived through the war held high brevet rank that disappeared in 1865. (Similar to the AUS example below.) "Fighting Joe" Hooker, for example, was a substantive major in the US Army at the same time that he was a major general of volunteers in command of the Army of the Potomac.

** General Martok was originally barred from being an officer because his family was not from a noble line. This left him unable to even enlist as a soldier, but he eventually earned a battlefield promotion aboard a civilian ship and rose through the military ranks.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Chieftain's Shield'', Caesar orders that the eponomyous shield, which was stolen following his victory at Alesia, be found so that he can be carried on it in front of the rebellious Gauls as a symbol of his victory over them. He orders the Prefect of Arverne to find it and every Roman soldier in the city begin desperately searching the numerous coal sheds in town to find it. At the end of the book it turns out Vitalstatistix has it and the town parades in front of Caesar lead by him and Asterix, while the soot-covered Romans are left on the sidelines. Caesar promotes the only two clean soldiers in the city (a drunken Centurion and a slacker Legionnaire), who ducked out of the search, to Prefect and Centurion respectively and leaves, saying that [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain no-one shall ever mention these events or this town in his presence again]].

* ''[[Literature/TrailOfGlory 1812: The Rivers of War]]'' by Creator/EricFlint has a number of these. In one case 21 year old Captain Sam Houston (bumped up from Ensign by General Andrew Jackson for his heroism in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Horseshoe_Bend Battle of Horseshoe Bend]]) and 32 year old Lieutenant Patrick Driscol (more-or-less browbeaten into accepting a commission after losing his arm during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chippawa Battle of the Chippawa]]) both end up in Washington D.C. in time to rally several hundred leaderless troops (more or less against orders) and defend the Capitol from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington invading British troops]]. Not long afterwards ''Colonel'' Houston and his XO ''Major'' Driscol were dispatched at the head of the First Capitol Volunteers to reenforce New Orleans.

* Shortly after the French landings in Britain at the beginning of ''[[Literature/{{Temeraire}} Victory of Eagles]]'', the high command got word of local militia west of London defeating several french foraging units (by some accounts even making use of unharnessed dragons that had wandered from breeding grounds in that direction) and sent a messenger with a battlefield commission of Colonel for whoever was in charge. Temeraire accepts with alacrity, to the suprise of all humans involved.

* In ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', Reinhard von Musel (later Lohengramm) is promoted from Admiral to High Admiral by his superior, Fleet Admiral Gregor von Muckenberger, after winning them a great battle.

He must brevet many juniors. Expect some of them to panic for at least a minute or two. May also inspire moments of grief because their predecessor is dead -- hopefully, no matter how beloved he was, not LosingTheTeamSpirit.

*** The series begins with the Valhallan 597th being pieced together from two regiments torn up in combat with Tyranids, with the rush of promotions that situation implies. Some regiments are worse off than others, though - mention is made of a Lieutenant promoted directly to colonel, [[YouAreInCommandNow by default]]. Even worse, her second-in-command Major Broklaw, who had considerably more combat experience than Colonel Kasteen, lost out on the promotion because she had ''three days'' seniority over him. And of course, merging an all-female regiment with an all-male one brings its own problems. Fortunately, Cain's management skills are up to the task, and Kasteen and Broklaw are FireForgedFriends by the end of the book.

*** In ''Deus Sanguinius'', at the end, he is offered a field promotion to a captaincy as a reward. He declines it as he has not earned it.

* A variation on this trope is the [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Army_of_the_United_States Army of the United States]], the conscript (read: draft) force of the United States. When activated (thus far, it has only happened in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, and UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar), many of the officers are initially drawn from the regular Army and the Reserves, where they receive promotions to deal with the increased number of men they will be leading. Once the war ends, and the AUS is stood down, the officers go back to their previous jobs... and their previous ranks, since the Army of the United States is a separate organization from the Regular Army and the Army Reserves. [[note]]Of course, depending on how long they were serving in the AUS, they may have received promotions in the Regular Army anyways, though not necessarily to the level where they served in the AUS).[[/note]]