Can someone explain US army ranks to me?

In the Royal Navy, Commander is equivalent to Lt Colonel in the Army system (NATO OF-4).

A Frigate, Destroyer or Submarine will typically be captained by a Commander.

And a Naval Captain is about the same rank as an Army Colonel

Sarge Steel

The whole thing is, while there are lots and lots of gradations and delineations in military groupings and ranks, the reality is, it's seldom this simple.

There are tons of considerations and special cases involved (back in the early 90's, the Physicians Assistants in the Army Medical Corps had a transition from Warrant Officer Status to Commissioned Status. So you had a lot of Warrant Officers becoming Liutenants with LOTS of time-in-grade).

Depending on unit type, size, etc, you can see all sorts of leadership structures.

The medical clinic I worked at while enlisted had a Full Bird in charge of the clinic of about 12 doctors and PAs, plus about a dozen enlisted medics, plus some NCO management. Yet all the enlisted belonged to the medical company on the post, which was initially run by a captain, who was then replaced by a Liutenant. The urgent care center on post was overseen by a captain, with the medical clinic there run by yet another Colonel, with the entirety of the USA MEDDAC run by a General.

And the Detachment I worked at in Korea was run by a captain, had 4 doctors, 3 PAs, and about a dozen US military personnel and half a dozen KATUSA. Run by a captain.

Depending on what the unit was doing it could be lead by just about any NCO rank from Sergeant on up, or could have a commissioned officer directly in charge.

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A little more on the Officer/Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) difference:

NCOs were an invention of the British army and largely been adopted by all modern militaries since then. Sergeants are referred to as the "backbone of the [insert force here]". The reason for that is the concept of Institutional Memory. Institutional Memory is a collection of "ways of doing things", traditions, and knowledge of past mistakes so that earlier errors don't have to be repeated endlessly. Since a Sergeant spends his entire career with the enlisted soldiers and is up close with the end results of any mistakes that are made by higher ranks, they are the repository for Institutional Memory.

The invention of the NCO is credited to a lot of the effectiveness of Western militaries in modern history.

A Lieutenant's job is to direct a small unit of soldiers towards the accomplishment of a mission. A Sergeant's job is to make sure the unit is *able* to do that mission (that includes making sure the Lieutenant does his job right). The Sergeant spends time thinking about whether individual soldiers are in the right frame of mind, which ones need a little extra training or "encouragement", etc. The Lieutenant has to be aware of these things as well, but the Sergeant is the one who makes them happen. If the Lieutenant spent all his time doing the Sergeant's job, he wouldn't have time to do anything else; if he spent all his time thinking tactically, the day to day running of the unit would suffer.

That's actually what happened to Lieutenants in militaries organized on the old Soviet model of recent history. The Soviets considered regular enlisted men too stupid and uneducated to be trusted with any real responsibility. While they had "Sergeant" ranks, those soldiers were essentially Privates with a bit more seniority. So Soviet-model militaries put a lot more strain on the responsibilities of the Lieutenants and ended up with less effective individual units that also had to keep "re-inventing the wheel" every time they got a new officer.

I've read that the hardest thing for the American trainers in Iraq to do was establish an effective, professional NCO corp in the new Iraqi army.


That also segues into your remaining un-answered question: what's an XO? An XO, or Executive Officer (also First Officer) is the right-hand of the commanding officer. It's easiest to illustrate with the navy: A Captain in the navy directs where the ship goes and who it fights when it gets there. The Captain's First Officer, and second in command, makes sure the ship is able to get there, it's various departments are functioning optimally, and it's ready to fight when it arrives. Again, the Captain must check off that these things have been done, but it's the XO who gets them done.


As a final thing to bring it all around to the beginning, in the navy senior-Sergeants are referred to as "Chiefs". As in the "Master Chief" from Halo.



I highly recommend that you do watch We Were Soldiers that another poster mentioned. It well illustrates "good" examples of all the ranks up to Colonel and how they operate (plus one "bad" Lt). The Lake Scene from deleted scenes in that film is also priceless for it's depiction of a Sergeant who's had enough of another "bad" Lt. I'll PM you links for both but not include them here; it's as bloody as any other recent war movie and thus NSFW.

One thing I haven't seen here yet is the difference between rank (sergeant, lieutenant) and position (platoon leader, XO).

Each unit has specified positions that are normally filled by a "best" rank, but can be filled by a lesser rank or even empty. For example, an infantry company commander (CO) is supposed to be a Captain, but sometimes you see First Lieutenants as COs.

On staff versus field officers: even in a front-line infantry battalion, you have field officers that lead the three combat companies, and staff officers that perform functions like Supply, Intel, and Operations.

Sam, for purposes of your story, a field officer could combat troops in battle, and then be assigned Intel in a field unit. If he proves himself adept in that role, he can rise as an Intel officer in rank and position (Captain Intel in the battalion, Major Intel in the brigade, and so on).

These forums are awesome, indeed.

--NT

The concept certainly goes back to the Roman Legions to my knowledge, and likely before.

The rank, certainly. Every army that lasted more than a season has also had "veterans" who carried knowledge and experience with them. But the British instituted the formal, professional role and degree of responsibility within a unit. The Sergeant became an institution of the army itself, rather than a given unit, whose intended purpose was to provide constancy and continuity from unit to unit over time.

The Romans had "Principalis" who were soldiers recognized for becoming highly experienced veterans within a given unit. But they did not pass between units, nor did they deliberately set out to gain that status, nor did the legion commands have a policy of cultivating and maintaining a set number of them with explicit purpose.

The Soviets in modern times, again, had a "Sergeant" rank, but that was only a recognition of seniority among enlisted soldiers. All the authority and responsibilities taken up by the NCO in current, Western-model armies were left to the Lieutenant. Should the Lieutenant be promoted, they left and the unit got someone brand new.

Rather than let experience come and go ad-hoc, the British formalized a role within their armies to create and maintain it universally; granting authority, responsibility, and even specific career-path to do so.

By your concept you could be either enlisted or commissioned (maybe even a Warrant Officer, but just being good at killing stuff is kinda hard to find an MOS for in the military).

Take my PB. He was an absolute hellraiser. He maimed several people in a bar fight and was given a "Go to war or go to jail" ultimatum from the judge and joined the Marines. Right in time for WWII.

Surprisingly enough, he fit into the Marines line a fist in a glove. And the war gave him a GREAT outlet for his more antisocial tendancies.

About the time he was wounded on Iwo Jima, a Peacebringer came crashing to earth, his old host dying. Then, the usual thing happens between a kheldian and their new host and VOILA! Peacebringer with 'tude.

He spent the next 60-odd years as part of a special ops program before being forcibly retired with little more than cosmetic aging (looks like he's in his 50's-60's, but has the fitness of a 20 year old). Moving back to Paragon City, he was aghast (and not a little pissed off) with some of the changes that had come to "his" city (if he could, he'd give the collective superhero population a smack upside the head for letting it get so bad, and as for the villains themselves...you don't wanna know).

So, he's basically having a "Get off my lawn" moment with the entirety of the criminal population of Paragon City.

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