Re: [DL] Question on Army Rank

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

 >allow me to delurk for a moment.  what do you mean by "parallel nature of
 >officer/enlisted service that exists in the modern military"?  how does one
 >achieve an officer's rank today?

Well - the usual officer is one that either went to a military academy, or 
went through ROTC in college, while anyone can sign up for the enlisted 
side of the house.

A third option - Officer Candidate School - is available for the enlisted 
to be raised to the officer ranks.  And IMnsHO if you are in the service, 
you WANT as many officers in your chain of command to be OCS.  They tend to 
know how the military works (at least in the enlisted side), unlike the 
officers, who may or may not realize that four years of campus life does 
not give them a strong knowledge of the military life.
God help you if you get a West Pointer. :-)


But - for my $0.02 on the original question - Dirk, there is enough leeway 
and variation involved with the military track during this time that just 
about any rank could be justified, barring the highest levels of both 
enlisted and officer (1st Sergeant/Colonel and higher).  There was one case 
of a brevet Colonel being dropped down to Master Sergeant during the 
shrinking of the army following the Civil War.  There just wasn't room 
enough in the chain of command for all of those officers in the much 
smaller military.

And, there is an almost aristocratic manner to the officers  -  they are 
held to a higher standard by the Army, their fellow officers, and their 
troops.  While an enlisted soldier will often see their stripes come and 
go, (promoted up through merit, demoted for breaking rules), an officer who 
engages in such behavior will have a very short career.  Or at least one 
that dead ends at, at best, a mid-grade rank.
-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/deadlands/index.html

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Neelix:
Actually, Captain, I'm not really familiar with the chickens in this 
system.  But--if you can catch it, I can cook it.