Well, our oldest son graduated from infantry school at Fort Benning, GA and trust me, by the time he got to his first permanent assignment, he pretty well knew exactly what the Army was going to be expecting of him and what it was that he needed to do to survive being in the Army.
BTW, he managed to make sergeant by the end of his 4 year enlistment.
And this deal about Bergdahl being 'promoted in absentia', it's hard to believe that they would do that if there was any questions at the time that he might have deserted. I suspect that the facts in this case are much more complex than we can imagine and only time will tell as what I'm sure is going to be a rigorous investigation by the Army.
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