History Main / FieldPromotion

* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': Despite having never been commissioned, Aditya Sahil faithfully mans the Federation relay station for over forty years as a civilian liaison. When Commander Michael Burnham arrives, she gives him a field promotion to Acting Communications Chief, allowing him to act with the authority of the Federation. When the Emerald Chain is defeated, allowing Starfleet and the Federation to re-emerge from hiding, Sahil is formally commissioned as a Starfleet Lieutenant by Admiral Vance in appreciation of his dedicated service.

** When Gil [[spoiler:destroys the attacking Clank Army with a lightning rod]], the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071207 following exchange takes place:]]
--->'''Gil:''' All I want is your commander.\\
'''Mook:''' [[spoiler:You hit him with lightning.]]\\
'''Gil:''' Ah. Second in Command?\\
'''Mook:''' Him, too.\\
'''Gil:''' ...Third?\\
'''Mook:''' He was in the second machine.\\
'''Gil:''' ''[sigh]'' Fourth?\\
'''Mook:''' [[spoiler:''[pulls out a knife]'' THAT WOULD BE ''ME'', MADBOY!]]\\
'''[THOK!]'''\\
'''Dimo:''' Hoy! So, who ''else'' vants to be '''''promoted?'''''

* Similarly to the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' example above, the 2409 and ''Discovery''-era Starfleet captains gain their captaincy this way. They start off as recently graduated cadets from Starfleet Academy on a training cruise when Klingons ambush and board their ship, kidnapping the captain. When he's killed, you, as the acting First Officer, end up becoming captain and is made official after surviving the harrowing set of events.

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': Jardin gets one in a rather unusual manner -- when Tempo [[https://www.well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider061.html officially designates him as humanity's ambassador to the Loroi]], she also recognizes him as military attaché for his mission, which comes with the honorary rank of Captain. The other Loroi take to addressing him as Captain, although this eventually chafes on him.

** There is one bit where fresh-out-of-the-Academy Third Lieutenant Juan Rico recommends a couple of field promotions be performed on the way back to base, to fill out his platoon. Juan's captain explains why you never promote on the way back to base (higher headquarters will grab them).

** 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.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.
** B'Elanna Torres is made Starfleet lieutenant (j.g.) on Captain Janeway's authority (despite being a member of a rebel group known as the Maquis) as her skills in engineering mean she needs to be made chief engineer. She is chosen over Lt. Carey even though she did not graduate Starfleet Academy.
** Chakotay, another Maquis and a former Starfleet officer, is given his Lieutenant Commander rank back (and later promoted to Commander) and her first officer. Combined with his being a Maquis captain, he ends up as something of a double subversion.
** Tom Paris, a legitimate but disgraced Starfleet lieutenant, was reinstated. Later in the series, he got demoted for disobeying orders, and promoted later on.

** And then there's The Doctor, who gets promoted from "supplemental diagnostic tool" to Chief Medical Officer.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/AmericanBeauty'', [[http://www.ambarb.com/?p=261 Two Tanks Omen promotes a junior to number two, and orders him to kill his predecessor.]]
* Karcharoth of ''Webcomic/CryHavoc'' is promoted from Sergeant to Assault Sergeant Major in a month after his lieutenant is KIA and a replacement is not found.

** When Gil [[spoiler:destroys the attacking Clank Army with a lightning rod,]] the [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071207 following exchange takes place:]]

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

'''Dimo:''' Hoy! So, who ''else'' vants to be '''''promoted'''''?
** [[spoiler:Ironically given his quote above, Dimo himself was promoted to one of the Jäger generals during a later TimeSkip when all the other generals were trapped in a stasis bubble.]]

** Early on, when Schlock helped the company reclaim the ship from food-service commandos.

** 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.]]

* Averted in militaries that don't have the rigid correspondence between rank and position, such as Russian Army in all its instances. There, the officer in command simply stays in his rank and continues to command his unit until the wheels of military bureaucracy turns and he gets actual promotion. During WWII there were Red Army majors that commanded ''divisions''. Yeah, right, ''majors'', not major-''generals''. If a division was commanded by a colonel, they didn't even bother to promote him.

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

* In LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes, Reinhard von Musel (later Lohengramm) is promoted from Admiral to High Admiral by his superior, after winning them a great battle.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': After his soldiers finish evacuating Beacon Academy's students during the Fall of Beacon, General Ironwood decides to stay behind at the school to assist the heroes in the FinalBattle. As a final order, Ironwood gives his second-in-command Winter a promotion from Specialist to Brigadier General, entrusting her to take his place as the leader of the Atlesian military should he die.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': After his soldiers finish evacuating Beacon Academy's students during the Fall of Beacon, General Ironwood decides to stay behind at the school to assist the heroes in the FinalBattle. As a final order, Ironwood gives his second-in-command Winter a promotion from Specialist to Brigadier General, setting up a replacement to take command of his army should he perish during battle.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': After his soldiers finish evacuating Beacon Academy's students during the Fall of Beacon, General Ironwood decides to stay behind at the school in order to join in on the FinalBattle. As part of his final orders, Ironwood gives his second-in-command Winter a promotion from Specialist to Brigadier General, setting up a replacement to take command of his army should he perish during battle.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': After his soldiers finish evacuating Beacon Academy's students during the Fall of Beacon, General Ironwood decides to remain at the school in order to join in on the FinalBattle. As part of his final orders, Ironwood gives his second-in-command Winter a promotion from Specialist to Brigadier General, setting up a replacement to take command of his army should he perish during battle.

* ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'': During the Fall of Beacon, General Ironwood gives his second-in-command Winter a promotion from Specialist to Brigadier General just before he's about to partake in the FinalBattle against the BigBad. This is because he is uncertain whether the BigBad can be stopped and wants a replacement available to take command of his army should he die.

* In ''Fanfic/AvengersInfiniteWars'', this term could apply to how some of the Avengers have unofficially adopted leadership roles among the clones after joining the Clone Wars on the side of the Republic, despite not having any qualifications that the Republic would recognise. At least one Avenger (specifically [[spoiler:Matt Murdock/Daredevil]]) has to specifically clarify that he should just be considered another soldier during a mission rather than a commander, even as Sam Wilson and Rhodey act as leaders of a flight division and Captain America is treated as a commander when on missions with the clones.
* In chapter 9 of ''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20031203155746/sfvskof.highervoltage.net/intro.php Nightmare Symbiosis,]]'' M. Bison's personal transportation flies through a massive storm/PillarOfLight [[spoiler:generated by Orochi]]. A pilot by the name of Stanton panics, which leads to Bison killing him. He turns to the next in the chain of command, a pilot named Amy Redding:
-->'''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.
* Very odd example from ''FanFic/TheWorldsGreatestChuninExamTeam''. Killer B is still a Genin but as he explains to Naruto, he was a genin during the Third Shinobi World War. At some point, he became a squad leader and started getting treated like a jonin. This happened for so long that the ninja in Kumo still treat him like one and have forgotten that they never made it official.
* In ''Fanfic/FromBajorToTheBlack'', Kanril Eleya is brevetted from lieutenant junior grade to lieutenant commander by Captain Jay Yim after she ends up in command of USS ''Kagoshima'' due to [[YouAreInCommandNow being the seniormost officer still kicking]]. In "Fanfic/TheUniverseDoesntCheat", Admiral Arkad makes the promotion permanent.
* In ''Fanfic/XCOMFromTheAshesOfTemples'', The Commander is killed during Base Defense. The Council is [[YouAreInCommandNow forced to assign]] [[GenreBlind Central Officer Bradford]] as the replacement commander. Everyone including Bradford goes "OhCrap!".

* ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'': During the [[TheCoup Darkest Winter Night]], Phobos promotes Raythor from Lieutenant to Captain on the spot after he proves his loyalty.''

** Worf is given a promotion to Chief of Security in "Skin of Evil" after Armus murders Tasha Yar. Unlike most other KlingonPromotion moments, Worf does not like the fact that he was given this promotion.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', it is general practice for the Grand Masters of the [[DemonSlaying Daemon hunting]] [[SuperSoldier Grey Knights]] to be chosen by the unanimous approval of the Chapter's seven other Grand Masters. Aldrik Voldus however was appointed to the position of Grand Master of the 3rd Brotherhood by Supreme Grand Master Draigo himself after the [[FlyingDutchman cursed Chapter Master]] witnessed his courage and [[TheArchmage psychic might]] first-hand.

* In Jim Butcher's other series, ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry is first forcibly recruited into the Wardens after their ranks are reduced by almost three quarters in a single battle, to give him legitimacy in the immediate battle, and force him to help in the ongoing war against the Red Court. By the end of the book (i.e. the very next day for him), he's a regional commander of the Warden's North America division, mostly because the other regional commander was promoted at the same time as him and has far less experience. Instead of demonstrating his badassitude, it shows how desperate the ongoing war has become. The Captain who drafts him also [[spoiler:points out they lost so many because of a mole. If Harry doesn't join, many will start to think he is the mole]].

** ''Literature/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.)

** Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel (actually a time-lost Sam Vimes) in ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'' 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.

* Happens everywhere in ''Literature/TheThinRedLine'', the most prominent example being two [=NCOs=]([[spoiler:John Bell and "Skinny" Culn]]) who get a commission.

* Happens quiet frequently on [[Series/TwentyFour ''24'']]. On Day 2, Tony Almeida is promoted to CTU Director after [[spoiler: the death of his superior, George Mason]]. On Day 6, Nadia Yassir is similarly promoted to CTU Director when [[spoiler: Bill Buchanan is forced out.]]