Cora Harper (Official Thread)

Ashley is what is often referred to as a "Mustang". She started out as a non-comm. And this backs up what I said. You don't NEED to start out as a non-comm to become an officer, which is what you seem to be assuming.

As for Ashley doing more in the alliance, of course she did. She served for a much longer period of time. Cora was a 2nd Lt for possibly a few months before becoming part of the Asari military. Also keep in mind Ash was blacklisted from the officer ranks due to her family history. She was never considered for a full commission or officer training until working with Shepard, where the admiralty recognized her actions instead of the lower ranking officers who were blacklisting her.

I head canon that as the admiralty promoting on her based time spent being stuck as non-comm due to the backlisting. Her record was well decorated, and she had commanded small squads and patrols in the past. You could argue assigning her to Horizon was part of her officer training to see how she handled working on her own, and working with civilians vs combat and squad tactics which was/is the majority of her experience.

Cora most likely was never enlisted.

Most officers in real world military organizations aren't mustangs. The usual path to getting commissioned an officer is to obtain a college degree and then go on to their equivalent of basic training (enlisted recruits and officer candidates have separate training programs) and an additional leadership school. For US Marines for example that's OCS (Officer Candidate School) and TBS (The Basic School). They become Lieutenants on graduating from OCS and have no prior military experience beyond the training they've had.

A small minority of officers are mustangs, prior enlisted who later obtained officer commissions through enlisted commissioning programs. Typically these are people who didn't have a college degree when they enlisted but obtained one either while enlisted, or following an enlistment.

It is also possible for someone to be awarded a battlefield commission for bravery and demonstrated leadership ability under fire, but these are exceedingly rare. During the Vietnam War only 62 enlisted Marines received battlefield commissions, for example. College degrees tend to trump all other qualifications.

Cora's age totally fits with someone who went on to college, was commissioned an officer, and then served a few years with the Alliance and Asari navies. The character would only need to be older if she was someone who spent four or eight years enlisted prior to be commissioned an officer, but since that isn't the usual path to becoming an officer in the real world, it shouldn't be a requirement for her background in the fictional Alliance Navy.

I don't know shit about the military and their ranks but I've been reading what you all have to say and I'd like to just point out one thing that goes against the theory that Cora could have gotten a college degree or an equivalent in order to become a Lieutenant so "fast". She enlisted at 18 in the Alliance military it's canon and in the codex. The codex also claims that she was raised in poverty on a cargo freighter so... I doubt she had access to that level of education. That's it, that's all I have to say on the matter.

That doesn't contradict that at all.

Most mustangs obtained their college degree either while enlisted or following an enlistment, and a college degree is far and away the primary requirement for being eligible for an officer's commission in the real world. Just as civilians can both hold a job and take college courses simultaneously, enlisted military personnel can get a college education while in the military. It's more difficult to be sure in that deployments and such get in the way, but plenty of people have done it. One of my friends did it and was commissioned.

It does mean that Cora enlisted first, but doesn't necessarily mean she spent a lot of time enlisted before being commissioned and just rose through the ranks. The Alliance may also very well have it's own version of MECEP.

The alternative is that Cora became an officer without a college education, which quite frankly, is rather silly. The only time lack of a college education might be waved is with battlefield commissions and those almost never happen, since higher education is considered a fundamental requirement for the job.

I assume that Shepard and Hackett and other Mass Effect characters who were mustangs went through something similar to MECEP while enlisted, otherwise their career paths are completely implausible.

Dammit. Filthy Ashley sneaked her way here.

So, Cora?

Major Alenko is also a key perpetrator.

One of the most problematic points of the Systems alliance rank structure is placing Army/Marine Major above the level of Naval Commander. 

So LT Alenko starts as a rank lower than LTC=>CDR Shepard in ME1 and in ME3 ends up at a rank of Anderson in ME1?

This is as unbelievable as Ashley's jump from Gunnery to LTC. 

Eh, this is almost exclusively a US thing. In pretty much every other English speaking country, you can go to the service academy for officer training (which unlike the American ones, aren't colleges) straight out of high school. Most people apply after their degrees, but many people do take that path, including some of the most famous officers in modern history.

Its Biowares military. Let them do whatever they want no matter if it makes sense or not. Look at Traynor. She is a specialist. There is no such title in the Alliance. She is an E-4, the same as a Corporal. I would have made her an officer. Most likely a First Lieutenant

My suggestion to Bioware is to hire a military consultant.



Oh yeah. Cora thread. I romanced her in my third playthrough which gave me the matchmaker trophy. excellent

That's what E-4 is, enlisted. Recon Specialist is a title. No idea what rank Ryder is.

Ha.

I would make him  an E-5

Eyes and I have no idea if you've got that too, but Cora and Liam's uniforms changed. They've got blue shoulders and sleeves.