History Main / UpThroughTheRanks

* Ia and several secondary characters from the ''Literature/TheirsNotToReasonWhy'' series exit basic as privates (a lance corporal in Ia's case), but Ia earns a field commission at the end of the first book and spends the first half of book two at the MilitaryAcademy. In this 'verse it's preferred: while you ''can'' go straight to an Academy after basic, you'll spend the rest of your career as a desk jockey instead of a combat officer. One of the other requirements besides {{badass}}itude is a college degree: in one chapter Ia is shown working on a degree in military history from a correspondence course, noted to be a common choice for would-be officers.

* Happened very often during TheFrenchRevolution, partly because the emigration of many officers led to a need to replenish the higher ranks with experienced men. In fact, many of Napoleon's marshals first enlisted as privates [[note]]At least twelve out of twenty-six: Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Ney, Bessières, Lefebvre, Victor and Oudinot. The others either graduated from military academies or were civilians directly elected to officer ranks.[[/note]] and some of them spent many years in the ranks.

* Captain Kanril Eleya of ''Fanfic/BaitAndSwitchSTO'' spent four years as a noncom in the Bajoran Militia and saw combat, then attended Starfleet Academy for a shortened Officer Candidate School program after the Militia decommissioned the last of its starships. An AlternateTimeline version of her in "Fanfic/TheRoadNotTaken" went to the Militia's officer school instead and in the present day is a captain (O-3) and the security chief on Deep Space 9.

** According to rumor, the [[YouAreInCommandNow situation on Corania]] prior to the first book is such that one of the Rough Rider regiments ended up with a colonel who had been [[FieldPromotion promoted]] from sergeant. (According to Vail, this is untrue, but only just; the colonel in question had previously been promoted to lieutenant but ''was'' an NCO first.)

** The Confederate side had one of their own in Nathan Bedford Forrest. He enlisted as a private at the outbreak of the war in 1861. By 1864, he had been promoted all the way up to Major General.

* US Navy Admiral Jeremy Boorda was the first enlisted man to rise all the way up to Chief of Naval Operations (one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).

* ''Every'' [[UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForests Finnish]] soldier starts as a [[{{conscription}} conscripted Private]]. Only those who are during their service promoted to NCO ranks or pass successfully the Reserve Officer Academy are eligible to apply for Finnish Military Academy.

* FeudalFuture example with General Martok from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Fifteen generations of his family had been warriors in the Klingon Defense Force, but since they were commoners none became officers. Martok managed it with a field commission (despite having been blacklisted for his low birth), then earned enough personal honor to marry a prestigious noble woman (becoming leader of a noble house), makes it to the rank of fleet admiral then supreme commander of the entire Klingon armed forces. [[spoiler: By the end of the series he's been made the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire, leader of the High Council, and the first warrior/soldier to hold the position in generations (rather than a politician)]].

* FeudalFuture example with General Martok from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. Fifteen generations of his family had been warriors in the Klingon Defense Force, but since they were commoners none became officers. Martok managed it, and not only did he make it to flag rank despite Kor blacklisting him for his low birth, [[spoiler:but by the end of the series he's the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire]].

** Sergeant Lustig started off as the "the upper ranks don't care about us rank and file!" sort of soldier. He was given a FieldPromotion to Sergeant at Cain's suggestion. His superior officer, Jenit Sulla, is an exaggerated example: She was promoted to Captain (having already moved from Quartermaster Sergeant to Lieutenant), by Cain's (accidental) suggestion (opening the way for Lustig's promotion). Cain expected her LeeroyJenkins habits to eventually get her killed, but she ultimately reached the rank of [[FourStarBadass Lady General]].

** Sergeant Lustig started off as the "the upper ranks don't care about us rank and file!" sort of soldier. He was given a FieldPromotion to Sergeant at Cain's suggestion. His superior officer, Jenit Sulla, is an exaggerated example: She was promoted to Captain (having already moved from Quartermaster to Sergeant), by Cain's (accidental) suggestion (opening the way for Lustig's promotion). Cain expected her LeeroyJenkins habits to eventually get her killed, but she ultimately reached the rank of [[FourStarBadass Lady General]].

** Ashley Williams starts out in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' as a gunnery chief, a non-commissioned officer grade. Assuming she survived the Virmire mission, between games [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 two]] and [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 three]] she either attends officer candidate school or acquires a field commission, and by the Reaper invasion is a lieutenant commander, the same rank as Shepard.

Closely related to RankUp. The distinction is twofold: First, someone who came up through the ranks may have done it offscreen, and second, this is specifically promotion from enlisted man to commissioned officer.
Contrast Main/DecliningPromotion, when someone is offered this and turns it down, and Main/GentlemenRankers, whoare the inverse:enlisted troops with an officer's background.

** Self-{{defied|Trope}} with Chief Warrant Officer Sir Horace Harkness. Characters in-universe mention that he would easily qualify to become an officer if he wanted, possibly even a junior grade captain, but he's content to remain a senior noncom.

Prior enlisted are often characterized as being more blue-collar and down-to-earth than those who started as officers, and in many cases are trusted more by the rank-and-file because of it. This is frequently helped along by the character having seen some action, unlike an EnsignNewbie who is usually straight from the MilitaryAcademy.

** Alicia [=DeVries=] starts off as an enlisted soldier in the [[SpaceMarines Marine Corp]] and rises to the rank of Master Sergeant in the Cadre before being offered a commission.

* Ia and several secondary characters from the ''Literature/TheirsNotToReasonWhy'' series exit basic as privates (a lance corporal in Ia's case), but Ia earns a field commission at the end of the first book and spends the first half of book two at the MilitaryAcademy. In this 'verse it's preferred: while you ''can'' go straight to an Academy after basic, you'll spend the rest of your career as a desk jockey instead of a combat officer.
* Mr. Shortround, an USMC rifle platoon leader in ''The Short-Timers'', a VietnamWar era novel by Gustav Hasford. He got killed soon after his entry into the text - [[UnreliableExpositor probably]] [[UnfriendlyFire by one of his own men]], [[SociopathicSoldier Animal Mother]].

* In TheDevilisAPartTimer, [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental material]] state that Satan started his career as a common foot soldier. By the start of the series, he's the supreme commander of the LegionsOfHell.

* In ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' Johnny Rico is given a promotion from the enlisted ranks so he can take command of the Roughnecks after Lieutenant Raczak is killed.

* In ''Literature/InFuryBorn'' the Imperial Cadre (and possibly the other military branches) [[EnforcedTrope enforces this]], all officers have to serve at least a few years as a NCO before they can be granted a commission.

** {{Implied}} with [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]]. An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtnN-c8Mjg optional interaction]] on the Citadel in ''3'' has Shepard buy a round of drinks for a group of Marine grunts at James Vega's request. They give a call-and-response toast, and a [[QuickTimeEvent Renegade interrupt]] allows Shepard to supply the response. Vega comments he didn't think an officer would know that one.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarshipCreator'': The game's bio for Simon Tarses, a [[UnevenHybrid quarter-Romulan]] enlisted medical tech who was the subject of Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration: "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]", states that about a year after the episode, he attended Starfleet Academy and came back to the ''Enterprise'' as a lieutenant.

* The [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles Israeli Defense Force]] requires you to put in time as an enlisted man first. Enlistees with leadership potential become squad leaders first and only the best of those are permitted to attend officer school (Kurs K'tzinim). That's for line officers, anyway; engineering and medical officers are trained at civilian universities in something similar to an ROTC program.

** Alicia DeVries starts off as an enlisted soldier in the [[SpaceMarines Marine Corp]] and rises to the rank of Master Sergeant in the Cadre before being offered a commission.

* Ia and several secondary characters from the ''Literature/TheirsNotToReasonWhy'' series exit basic as privates (a lance corporal in Ia's case), but Ia earns a field commission at the end of the first book. In this 'verse it's preferred: while you ''can'' go straight to a MilitaryAcademy after basic, you'll spend the rest of your career as a desk jockey instead of a combat officer.

* Captain Kanril Eleya of ''Fanfic/BaitAndSwitchSTO'' spent four years as a noncom in the Bajoran Militia and saw combat, then attended Starfleet Academy after the Militia decommissioned the last of its starships.

* In the Soviet and then Russian army officer training is conducted in ''voyennoe uchilische'' (military training facilities), the conditions in which are very similar to the conditions the enlisted men live in, but longer (5 years instead of just one). However, an enlisted man who served his mandatory term and stayed in the army by contract can undergo officer training in a much more lenient way.\\

* The majority of the [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles Israeli Defense Forces']] officer corps is this, since they do not have officer candidate schools.
* ''Every'' Finnish soldier starts as a [[{{conscription}} conscripted Private]]. Only those who are during their service promoted to NCO ranks or pass successfully the Reserve Officer Academy are eligible to apply for Finnish Military Academy.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarshipCreator'': The game's bio for Simon Tarses, a [[UnevenHybrid quarter-Romulan]] enlisted medical tech who was the subject of Series/{{TNG}}: "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E21TheDrumhead The Drumhead]]", states that about a year after the episode, he attended Starfleet Academy and came back to the ''Enterprise'' as a lieutenant.

* The ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' series has Sergeant Lustig, who started off as the "the upper ranks don't care about us rank and file!" sort of soldier. He was given a FieldPromotion to Sergeant at Cain's suggestion. His superior officer, Jenit Sulla, is an exaggerated example: She was promoted to Captain (having already moved from Quartermaster to Sergeant), by Cain's (accidental) suggestion (opening the way for Lustig's promotion). Cain expected her LeeroyJenkins habits to eventually get her killed, but she ultimately reached the rank of [[FourStarBadass Lady General]].

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Timeline 191}}'' series, Sam Carsten starts out as an enlisted man in the US Navy. During the period between [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the Second Great War]], he takes a test to become an officer, passes, and eventually gets his own command in the later books.