The Accelerated Officer Program is a Star Army Training Administration program to convert existing Star Army of Yamatai soldiers to officers with the aim of increasing the amount of available officers in the Star Army.

In YE 42, Star Army Personnel Command observed a shortage of qualified officers in the Star Army of Yamatai.

1. Entire fleets and their officers were lost in the Battle of Hanako's Star and Third Battle Of Nataria.
2. The oldest and most experienced soldiers who joined the Star Army circa YE 22 were all reaching retirement age
3. Increased numbers of ships, bases, and huge ships like the Izanagi-Class Dreadnought created more demand for officers

Director Of Star Army Personnel Hanako needed to solve this slow-burning crisis as soon as possible. However, at the time all the officer schools and academies in the Star Army required college degrees and the shortest course at the Mayame Officer School was 120 days, followed by 2-year (Kyoto War College) and 4 year (Star Army Academy) programs.

Star Army command occupations have a pathway:

1. Star Army Starship Operator or similar starship line combat occupation (e.g. not a specialty like medical)
2. Star Army First Officer
3. Star Army Starship Captain
4. Star Army Fleet Admiral or Star Army Command Staff

However, at the time the Star Army was recruiting enlisted starship operators who often didn't make it to NCO rank as well as warrant officer starship operators recruited from the civilian world who were ineligible to advance to military command. The result was there was a whole class of starship operators and similar occupations who were essentially cut off from rising to command.

The solution Hanako came up with was to start a program to begin converting as many experienced enlisted starship operators to officers as possible on an accelerated timeframe as a stopgap for the officer shortage, and to begin recruiting starship operators as officers only.

Gabriela Lively was the first Star Army soldier to be placed in the Accelerated Officer Program¹⁾.

In YE 45.7, the program was also applied to science officers²⁾.

Star Army soldiers with previous starship operation experience are eligible for the program. This includes:

• Star Army Starship Operator
• Star Army Mission Operator
• Star Army Systems & Safety Monitor
• As of YE 45.7, Star Army Science Officer³⁾

Soldiers selected for the program would be able to take a rigorous online training class lasting 5 weeks (one Yamataian Calendar month) and receive promotions as follows:

• E1 Santô Hei to E3 Ittô Hei: Shoi Kohosei and would be enrolled in a 2-year course to complete education
  • Ittô Hei fully eligible for a promotion to Jôtô Hei can be promoted as E4s.
• E4 Jôtô Hei to E6 Ittô Heisho: Shoi
• E7 Jôtô Heisho and warrant officers: Chui

Soldiers in the Starship Operations occupation are required to complete the conversion to officer by the start of YE 44. Soldiers who do not make it are reclassified as MOS 01 Star Army Soldier.

Wes created this article on 2020/12/30 11:11.

Approval thread: https://stararmy.com/roleplay-forum/threads/saoy-accelerated-officer-program-of-ye-43.66626/