History Main / FieldPromotion

** Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel (actually a time-lost Sam Vimes) in ''Literature/NightWatch'' promotes Corporal Colon to sergeant during the Siege of Treacle Mine Road. In the opening scene, the present-day Sergeant Colon mentions this, adding that he was made a corporal again once the crisis was over.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/HowlingCommandos https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/field_promotion.jpg]]]]

-->-- ''Series/{{Firefly}}, [[PilotEpisode "Serenity"]]''

[[folder:Anime]]

* 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.

-->Asuka blinked away a small headache of her own. “What just happened?” She pointed at the sizzling piece of Black Knight. “I’m betting that’s not supposed to have happened, so what does it mean?”\\
Sergeant Bir gave Asuka a very weary look. “It means I think you just got promoted, ma’am.”

-->'''Bison''': ''(jovial)'' Miss Redding, I am delighted to inform you of your promotion~ ''(cold)'' Do ''his'' job better than ''he'' did.
* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', [=ProtoMan=] talks Wily into putting him in command of the Robot Masters and operations in the interlude to episode 9.

[[folder:Film]]

** 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.]]
** 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]].

* Creator/JossWhedon seems to have [[FlipFlopOfGod changed his mind on the subject a time or two]], but there are hints in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' and its novelization that main character Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds got a brevet promotion up to Captain during the Battle of Serenity Valley. Certainly he was ''commanding'' as many men as a captain would by the end.

* ''Film/StarTrek2009'': It gets most of the senior officers of the USS ''Enterprise''-- including ''three'' captains-- into their billets in this way.

-->'''Torgun''': ...Is it all right that I did that, my Lord?\\
'''Kamion''': Perfectly all right, Captain.\\
'''Torgun''': Ah -- I'm only a sergeant, my Lord!\\
'''Kamion''': Not anymore, you aren't.

** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'', Maladict gets a field promotion to corporal.
** ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' features a number of field promotions in the A-M City Watch, some of which are actually official. (As recruitment into the Citizen's Milita goes critical, some people are promoted by officers who don't strictly have the right to do so, and others are under the impression you ''decide'' what your rank is, based on how many other people you've recruited.)
** And in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist tries to cajole elderly Junior Postman Tolliver Groat into telling him about the secrets of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office with an implied promotion: "You tell me right now, ''Senior'' Postman Groat!" Later, Devious Collabone finds himself field promoted from university researcher, to doctor, and then again to professor, in the span of a few minutes. Mainly because a civilian tried to gainsay him in the presence of Unseen University's Archchancellor, Mustrum Ridcully, a firm believer in Retaliation By Promotion.
** Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel (actually a time-lost Sam Vimes) in ''Discworld/NightWatch'' promotes Corporal Colon to sergeant during the Siege of Treacle Mine Road. In the opening scene, the present-day Sergeant Colon mentions this, adding that he was made a corporal again once the crisis was over.
* In Anthony Reynolds's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''Dark Apostle'', Captain Loren is promoted to ''acting'' colonel. The adjective is emphasised to lend weight to the reason: there is no one else.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

'''Mook:''' [[spoiler: You hit him with lightning.]]\\

'''Mook:''' [[spoiler: He was in the second machine.]]\\

** Captain Tagon's father complains that "when I was your age, I was already a colonel." Tagon retorts that there was a war going on back then, and half of high command got nuked from orbit. And then [[spoiler: there was a mass nanite attack, and Tagon Sr. was suddenly a general.]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

** A subversion happens when Rico is at OCS. We find out one of his fellow officer candidates received a battlefield commission as a 1st Lieutenant some time prior (In case anyone didn't realize it, graduates of OCS start out with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, so Rico's classmate would actually be ''demoted'' after graduating.) The reason he's attending OCS is to become an officer "properly" - as a battlefield commissioned officer (with no higher education), his chances of rising higher than Lieutenant are very small. With Academy education and field command experience, his prospects are suddenly very good indeed.

* In ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries X-Wing: Solo Command]]'' Wedge gives "Face" Loran a field promotion to brevet captain because Wedge decided to retake command of Rogue Squadron, and Face's previous rank of lieutenant is too junior for him to command Wraith Squadron. By the end of the book, the rank is made permanent.

* In ''[[StarWars 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.

* ''Film/StarWars'':

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Done in a Tear-Jerking fashion in the [[GrandFinale Series Finale]] of ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''. When Numbuh 1 must leave Earth for good [[spoiler:to join the GALACTIC Kids Next Door]], that as well as the fact that [[BigBad Father]] is on his way to attack him and the rest of the Kids Next Door, when saying goodbye to Numbuh 5, he gives her his Sunglasses and promotes her as the NEW Numbuh 1 of the Team.

** In ''Disaster'' Picard is stuck in a failing turbolift with three children, whom he makes officers to prevent them from panicking. They promptly [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind mutiny]] when he orders them to leave him behind. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments The episode ends with both Riker and the 12-year-old first-officer responding "Yes, Captain" in unison when he addresses an order to "Number 1"]]

** Captain Tagon's father complains that "when I was your age, I was already a colonel." Tagon retorts that there was a war going on back then, and half of high command got nuked from orbit.
*** And then [[spoiler: there was a mass nanite attack, and Tagon Sr. was suddenly a general.]]
** During a [[FalseFlagOperation faked rebellion]] on Earth Lieutenant Sorlie [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2015-01-04 receives a field promotion to Captain]] along with orders to save the day.

* Lauri Törni, alias Larry Thorne, in ''three'' armies. He started as conscripted Private in the Finnish army, was made NCO in the Winter War, and later Captain. When Finland made peace with the USSR near the end of WWII, Törni defected to German Army, started as Schütze (Private) and soon rose to Hauptmann (Captain), ''in less than one year''. After the war he moved to USA, where he joined the Army as a Private. Soon his skills were noted, and he was transferred to Special Forces. He participated in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, where he eventually made Major. He was killed in action, and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.

* Lauri Törni, alias Larry Thorne, in ''three'' armies. He started as conscripted Private in the Finnish army, was made NCO in the Winter War, and later Captain. When Finland made peace with USSR, Törni defected to German Army, started as Schütze (Private) and soon rose to Hauptmann (Captain), ''in less than one year''. After the war he moved to USA, where he joined the Army as a Private. Soon his skills were noted, and he was transferred to Special Forces. He participated in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, where he eventually made Major. He was killed in action, and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.

* The song "Into the Fire" by Music/{{Sabaton}} mentions this, as told from the perspective of a soldier in the Vietnam War. The lyrics to the second verse start with "Sarge is down, I'm in charge, [=VCs=] everywhere!"

* Lauri Törni, alias Larry Thorne, in ''three'' armies. He started as conscripted Private in the Finnish army, was made NCO in the Winter War, and later Captain. When Finland made peace with USSR, Törni defected to German Army, started as Schütze (Private) and soon rose to Hauptmann (Captain), ''in less than one year''. After the war he moved to USA, where he joined the Army as a Private. Soon his skills were noted, and he was transferred to Special Forces. He participated in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, where he eventually made Major. He was killed in action, and is buried at Arlington Cemetary

* Before "Fanfic/TheUniverseDoesntCheat" Eleya was brevetted up to lieutenant commander, apparently the minimum rank before you can command a starship. This after she [[YouAreInCommandNow ended up the seniormost officer left alive]] courtesy of the Borg. Admiral Arkad makes the promotion permanent at the end of the story.

* ''Fanfic/AFeddieStory'' has General Revil hand over a set of captain's insignia to Jeannette Montange when the two meet, jumping her straight there from Sergeant. It's strongly implied the promotion is mainly for morale purposes: she and her tank crew are the only Zaku-killer aces in the entire Earth Federation Ground Forces at that point.

** In the next chapter, it's revealed Jeannette and her crew have been breveted up at least one more rank; the EFGF has called up all its reserves and is recalling anyone who ever served, and desperately needs people with combat experience to fill officer and senior NCO posts. They're so desperate it's implied the only reason Ritchie Smith (who's been in the army for barely two and a half months despite his impressive record as a gunner) isn't commanding his own tank is that Jeannette talked someone out of giving him one; she thinks his quest for revenge would get him and any crew he commanded killed.
* ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'': During the [[TheCoup Darkest Winter Night]], Phobos promotes Raythor from Lieutenant to Captain on the spot after he proves his loyalty.

* Variation in ''Film/KingdomOfHeaven'': Balian actually knights every single soldier in Jerusalem right before the final battle. [[spoiler:Which they lose, so it probably didn't help...]]
** TruthInTelevision: The real Balian knighted sixty bourgeoisie (middle class) men because there were a grand total of two knights in the city. The film portrays him as being extremely generous knighting freemen and serf alike, mostly for the psychological boost. [[spoiler:He wasn't trying to win the battle, he was hoping to hold out long enough for Saladin to negotiate instead of just trying to kill everybody.]]

*** 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 (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...

*** Jenit Sulla gets a variation: instead of a straight promotion, she gets breveted to the position, which gives her a trial run (if she fails, it doesn't leave a demotion on her record). To Cain's surprise, it sticks.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' featured this in the backstory for General Martok. He 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.

** Deconstructed and taken to the logical extreme in the episode ''Valiant'' in which all the actual officers on a training ship trapped behind enemy lines died, the captain field promoted a cadet to acting captain just before dying and the acting captain field commissioned all the other cadets into officer positions. The crew was shown to be talented but not conditioned for war and not experienced enough to plan for contingencies.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Picard gives [[CreatorsPet Wesley Crusher]] a field promotion from an acting ensign to a full fledged ensign, but not for a lack of officers. Picard wants to reward him for passing up his transport to Starfleet Academy in order to help rescue Riker and the Trois.

** In ''Disaster'' Picard is stuck in a failing turbolift with three children, whom he makes officers to prevent them from panicking. They promptly [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind mutiny]] when he orders them to leave him behind.
*** [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments The episode ends with both Riker and the 12-year-old first-officer responding "Yes, Captain" in unison when he addresses an order to "Number 1"]]

* The rebooted ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[Film/StarTrek film]] of 2009 gets most of the senior officers of the USS ''Enterprise''-- including ''three'' captains-- into their billets in this way.

* Creator/SandyMitchell's Literature/CiaphasCain novels have several instances of this:
** 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 (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...
** In ''Death or Glory'', he promotes a lieutenant and a sergeant to manage his ramshackle army, and two artisans are assigned to help their only engineer (they end up becoming lay brothers of the Mechanicus cult later).
*** The book also notes that these promotions would have to be finalized by the actual army since Cain as a Commissar is not inside the chain of command. However, denying promotions handed out by a Commissar would likely bring the attention of the Commissariat, which no one really wants...
** Jenit Sulla gets a variation: instead of a straight promotion, she gets breveted to the position, which gives her a trial run (if she fails, it doesn't leave a demotion on her record). To Cain's surprise, it sticks.
** In ''Cain's Last Stand'', he brevets the commissars in training as commissars. At the end, he ensures that all the survivors actually hold that rank.

* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Ghostmaker'', Gaunt has just gotten a large portion of a regiment off Tanith before its destruction. When his men tell him that the officers were all on planet and dead, he appoints the man who told him (and did most of the talking in the meeting) as Colonel, and the man who came with him as Major, and told them to appoint appropriate junior officers.
** He does this partly because those two men were chosen by the other soldiers to approach him, and so clearly command some sort of respect among their peers. He's also well aware that at least one of them hates his guts and wants to "keep his enemies closer."
** Also, in the series's backstory, the current Warmaster Macaroth was promoted to his position by Warmaster Slaydo during the liberation of Balhaut. Slaydo, who was mortally wounded, specifically named Macaroth, who was a relative unknown, as his successor. Though nobody is exactly sure why he chose Macaroth, many scholars believe that Slaydo did so in order to prevent the other senior officers from fighting over his position.
* In William King's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Ragnar's Claw'', after Ragnar [[YouAreInCommandNow gives orders to Space Marines who, he later realizes, included his commander]], and his sergeant was brought down, he is put in the sergeant's place.

* In Creator/JamesSwallow's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/BloodAngels novel ''Deus Encarmine'', the grief-stricken Rafen, seeing Sergeant Koris, his mentor, brought down by the Black Rage, is ordered to take Koris's place in command of the squad.
** 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.
* In Creator/JamesSwallow's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Sisters of Battle novel ''Hammer & Anvil'' Sister Imogen dies during her squad's infiltration of the Necron crypt, her last words to Miriya were to complete the mission, essentially making her a squad leader (again). This is despite the former's distrust and dislike for the latter due to the events of the previous book. Similarly, Verity is told by the convent's canonness that she is now a Sister Militant, no longer a Hospitaller, as the convent is assaulted by a massive Necron force, and is given a master-crafted bolt pistol to start her off.

*** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny The episode ends with both Riker and the 12-year-old first-officer responding "Yes, Captain" in unison when he addresses an order to "Number 1"]]

* 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.
*** And 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]].

* In ''[[Literature/TowerAndTheHiv Damia]]'', after Afra psychically rescues Damia from getting shipped out on an outbound freighter, [[DaChief Peter Reidinger]] tells him that there's no way he could pull that stunt off (hearing Damia's distress call, pulling her out and nearly yanking the entire freighter from The Rowan's psychic grip in the process) as a mere [[PowerLevels T-4]]. He promotes Afra to T-3 on the spot and tells him they'll talk back pay later. Later books in the series mark Afra as a T-2, just below a Prime/T-1.