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totallynotabrony


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May
28th
2014

Military Ranks · 11:25am May 28th, 2014

It’s not just a way to tell how long you’ve been playing a shooter. The military depends on people following orders. Orders come from the top down, from higher ranks to lower ranks. You probably know common ones like Sergeant or Lieutenant, but what do they all mean? Fear not, I’ll put you in your place, recruit.

There are a few basic categories. Commissioned officers are specifically trained to be leaders. Enlisted personnel make up the large majority of the manpower of any given military. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) are senior enlisted personnel that lead smaller groups and advise officers. Some militaries have warrant officers, which is a hybrid rank with certain caveats that is generally created from promoting NCOs.

While this is holds true for many militaries around the world, I’ll focus this blog on the United States, as that’s the brand of military that most often ends up in Equestria. Establishing the basics of rank should also help you in your own research if you decide to portray another military.

And now, some terms. “Rank” and “grade” (sometimes called paygrade) are easy to confuse. Your grade is how much authority you have. Your rank is what they call you.

Depending on what your level in the military is, your paycheck changes. This is based on military pay tables that the government publishes. Enlisted personnel are paid by E’s, for example the grades E-1 through E-9 in the US military. Warrant officers have W’s, and commissioned officers have O’s.

NCOs are usually defined on paper as E-4 and up, but most people think of them as E-6 or -7, (a.k.a. the average Drill Sergeant/Instructor)

Have a look at this chart:

The grade E-3 in the Army is a Private First Class. In the Marines it’s Lance Corporal. Air Force is Airman First Class. Navy is Seaman. They’re all completely different ranks but they hold equivalent seniority across services because the grade is the same.

The special ranks on the far right of the chart are 1-of-1 positions in each service. They are the senior enlisted person in each branch of the military.

And take a look at the right side of the Navy row. “Master Chief” is a Navy rank.


Hello sailor.

This chart is for officer ranks:

Commissioned officers are a little bit easier to keep track of. The Army, Marines, and Air Force all call their officers the same thing.

The Navy and Coast Guard have Lieutenants and Captains, but they’re not equivalent grade to the other branches.

Officers command whole units, and do most of the things like flying. Many officers are commissioned young, just out of college. This makes them younger and less experienced than the senior enlisted that they command. While this might not be an ideal situation, the rules exist so things don’t devolve into chaos over who is in charge. Officers are ultimately responsible for decisions, but a smart officer will listen to the most experienced advisors, regardless of their rank.

Warrant officers are promoted from senior enlisted personnel. They have fewer ranks but the structure makes less sense. These charts came from the Army, so apparently they aren’t accurate. The Navy/Coast Guard line is all boogered up. In reality: the Navy doesn’t have any 1-level warrant officers but the Coast Guard does. The Coast Guard doesn’t have any 5-level warrant officers but the Navy does.

Warrant officers aren’t able to be commanding officers of units. They are usually selected to be experts in a specific field, above and beyond whatever they were doing as enlisted. They sometimes fly aircraft.

There are also specialized ranks that only appear when needed. “Commodore” is not a real rank in the modern day, but is usually bestowed on a Navy Captain who is senior to other Captains, for example the commander of a group of destroyers.

You may have noticed that the above chart references five star Generals and Admirals. These ranks only appear during wartime, for people like MacArthur and Nimitz. There have only been a dozen or so Americans promoted to these ranks.

Fun fact: John Pershing was the first “six star” General. George Washington was posthumously promoted to six star status so no one would ever outrank him.

The five star ranks were created to give them authority to command combined forces during wartime, basically giving them enough stars to be solidly in charge of a large group of mixed nationalities. The equivalent to the US five star “General of the Army” is the British “Field Marshall.”

Speaking of combined commands, NATO has established a standard rank scale. Every member country has figured out how its ranks correspond to the NATO scale (OF-1 to OF-10 for officers, OR-1 to OR-9 for others). This way, even military members from different nations can figure out who is in charge.

It’s not difficult to find charts of military ranks from other countries. It can really be quite interesting comparing and contrasting some of the more obscure ones.

And now a bit of TNaB bellyaching about military inaccuracy in stories:

Many soldier-in-Equestria stories feature some sort of elite fighting force. While it’s not impossible for low-ranked guys (for example, Privates) to be members, it’s less likely. A lot of groups like that only recruit people who have been in a while. Even if they did get someone brand new, that person might rank up while going through the long elite training and everything else before they would go on actual missions. Do your research.

If you don’t want to do research (shame on you), then just call your character a Corporal or Sergeant and be done with it. Just about every land or air service anywhere has those ranks somewhere in it.

But please, for the love of God, don’t call your Navy SEALs by landlubber ranks.

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Comments ( 29 )

If I remember correctly, the Air Force has 6 enlisted personnel to every 1 officer. The Army and Navy are about 7 to 1, and the Marines are 9 to 1.

This will be highly useful for others who are unfamiliar or otherwise rusty with the ranking system.

Seargent is probably the single most useful rank pertaining to fiction.

It always suggests a guy who's near enough the bottom to be relatable and active in the immdiate sense, but also with the experience and authority to have real agency in a story.

Now the obligatory rank jokes:
The Five Most Dangerous Things in the Army
1. A Private saying, "I learned this in Basic..."
2. A Sergeant saying, "Trust me, sir..."
3. A Second Lieutenant saying, "Based upon my experience..."
4. A Captain saying, "I was just thinking..."
5. A Warrant Officer chuckling, "Watch this $#!+..."

THE FIVE MOST DANGEROUS THINGS IN THE MARINE CORPS:
A Private saying, "I just got the word...."
A Sergeant saying, "Lock and Load!"
A Second Lieutenant saying, "Follow me!"
A Captain saying to an in-bound A-6, "Our position is....."
A Lt. Col. chuckling, "I've seen this $hi* before...."


A tourist walked into a pet shop and was looking at the animals on display. While he was there, a Chief Petty Officer walked in and said to the shopkeeper, "I'll have an Seaman monkey please." The shopkeeper nodded, went over to a cage at the side of the shop and took out a monkey. He fit a collar and leash, handed it to the Customer,saying "That'll be $1000." The Chief paid and walked out with his monkey. Startled, the tourist went over to the shopkeeper and said, "That was a very expensive monkey. Most of them are only a few hundred dollars. Why did it cost so much?" The shopkeeper answered, "Ah, that monkey can clean heads and passageways, perform routine maintenance on ship or hangar fittings, troubleshoot and repair complex avionics systems with no mistakes,well worth the money."
The tourist looked at the monkey in another cage. "That one's even more expensive! $10,000! What does it do?" "Oh, that one's a Petty Officer monkey; it can instruct GMT, CSTT, PRT, DC, 3M, PQS qualify the Seaman monkey and even do some paperwork. All the really useful stuff," said the shopkeeper.
The tourist looked around for a little longer and saw a third monkey in a cage of its own. The price tag around its neck read $50,000. He gasped to the shopkeeper, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?" The shopkeeper replied, "Well, I haven't actually seen it do anything, but it says it's an Officer."


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Very useful and I too get pretty annoyed with people don't use the ranks right. Especially when they give a sailor an army rank in stead of a naval rating.

Hell this is useful for me as I try to make the officer ranks for the Royal Guard make sense, you have to admit Shining Armor is pretty damn young to be leading the Royal Guard.

Still we need to convince people that they don't have to be part of an elite unit before ending up in Equestria.

What's even worse about stories with SPESIL FURCES?

When authors can't even do their fucking research, and have say, fucking Navy Seals out fighting in the middle of a sprawling war zone, using weapons of every variety, everything from AKs to revolvers to LE116s because they saw them on Black Ops and thought they were cool.

Just fucking don't even write if you can't do the research. I mean seriously, it takes you fifteen fucking minutes to read on wikipedia about the forces you want to write about, and make sure that what you're writing is technically correct.

Never mind how people never seem to write PTSD, military tactics and doctrine, or even what it's like.

Seriously people, do your research, it's almost offensive to the men you're writing about, (and women if you're trying to be a special snowflake and have empowered female special forces) to write such incorrect, and contrived bullshit.

2152319
I thought the Marines were composed entirely of Lance Corporals. :rainbowwild:

Our military has a lot more ranks than I realized, and this is before we inevitably establish the space marines.

Is the Bosun the highest NCO on a ship?

2152319
*since you're interested in military and whatnot* If you have some spare time, you might go listen to a fellow by the name of Jingles, on youtube. He's a British Naval Vet, and does gaming vids nowadays. But his Mingles with Jingles series is pretty interesting and gives some neat looks into his life.

I guess it makes sense that the halo master chief would be navy, I mean, they're in space, they use space ships in space, so it's logical to assume that the Spartans would use navy ranks as the UNSC would technically be classed as a navy

also, whilst we are on the subject of the navy, I've heard the term Quartermaster used in conjunction with the navy, what is a Quartermaster?

2152879 According to my aunt, a retired nuke, a quartermaster is a non-commissioned officer (petty officer) rank for personnel responsible for the ship's navigation. In the U.S. Navy, the quartermaster is responsible for the ship's navigation and maintenance of nautical charts and maps. Aboard merchant ships, quartermasters are usually the Able Seamen assigned to bridge watches. A naval quartermaster's main task is to steer the ship and apply the helm orders given by the Captain or watch officers.

That image of the Chief made me laugh harder than it should've.

2152832 Bosun What I could find easily on what one is.

In the navy, you are an NCO if you make petty officer third class (E-4). You are a junior enlisted if you are E-6 and below, and are only considered senior enlisted if you are E-7 and above (once you make chief, which is a big deal full of pomp and tradition). If you are enlisted and have been in for less than 12 years, all your rank patches are red with a white eagle (when in dress blues). When you have been in for longer than 12 years, and have never gotten NJP during that time, you are authorized to wear gold chevron patches with a silver eagle.

Warrant officers in the Navy are technically commissioned officers, and are treated as such. While they cannot be like regular officers and be in command of an entire ship, they can be placed in command over entire departments, if needed. A warrant officer that I was friends with was placed in charge as one of the assistants of my Reactor Officer, and oversaw 2 separate divisions (though this was an unusual circumstance, as the prior mechanical assistant was proven unfit to be on the ship, and was removed as a result).

Each section of the Navy is ran by a director, which is usually a high-ranking admiral. An example would be Admiral Richardson, who is the Director of Naval Reactors. There are also Directors of Naval Personnel, Naval Supply, etc. These admirals answer to Admiral Greenert, who is the Chief of Naval Operations, and is basically the highest ranking officer in the Navy.

There's a lot more, but this is all what's off the top of my head. I just felt like sharing, since TNaB is posting about rankings and stuff.

2153063

I'm a former nuke, myself. And Quartermaster is not a rank, it's a job. After you leave bootcamp, you will go to an "A" school, where you will learn your job. Once you graduate from there, you will be given your rate, which tells everyone what your job is. If your job is a quartermaster, and you have the paygrade E-4, then your rate would be QM3, (QM is shorthand for quartermaster in the Navy, while the 3 tells everyone that you are a third-class petty officer).

I was a nuke electronics tech, so my rate is ET. I was frocked to a first class before I got out, so my rating was ET1 (frocking means that I was able to wear the next rank before I officially got the paygrade for it. So in my case, I was an E-5 ET1).

Just remember that in the Army, Air Force and Marines, once a sergeant, always a sergeant.

On a pay-grade related note, you forgot to mention that the Navy is special in that it does things a little differently. They use 'rate' and 'rating' instead of 'rank'.

Edit:

2152879
2153063
I know that MOS 91J in the Army is quartermaster/chem equipment repair. You're essentially making sure equipment is accounted for and in complete repair, that your platoon/brigade/whatever is properly stocked with supplies, etc.

2152832 Boson is a rate, a specific job like Gunner's Mate, Aviation Ordnanceman, Hull Technician, etc. Boson as a job tends to be handling lines and working the deck.

2152879 Quartermaster is also a rate. Railroad Brony gave a pretty good description of the job description.

2152735 One of my favorite comics.

2153438 Maybe I should do another blog on specific jobs, MOS/NEC

2153448 Because "rate" in the Navy describes both your rank and your overall job category (ie Electrician). But also because we like to be special. :derpyderp1:
2153438 Sure, technically a PO3 is an NCO. In reality, they're usually treated like higher-paid airmen. It's really rare they can't find a PO2 or PO1 somewhere to be in charge of something. (Also, sorry to hear you were a nuke! :twilightsmile:)
2152832 In the Navy, the highest ranking NCO at any command (ship, aircraft squadron, shore command) is normally the Command Master Chief. They are E-9s who have had additional leadership training, and are essentially responsible for the behavior and well-being of all the enlisted people.
2152319 And yet, we still somehow have more admirals than ships ...

2154477

lol, I agree with ya. Those third classes like to throw it around, though. Myself, I didn't even know we counted as NCO's until I overheard a couple tryhards at nuke school.

I've only rarely seen a third class in charge. When I was a PO2, one of my bosses was a PO3! But at the same time, he earned the right to become the LPO of his division, and in a reactor department, rank only really matters to the higher ups, while our level of qualifications matters more to everyone else. Hell, when I became ET1, my LPO was still an ET2, but I didn't mind.

I'm not sorry. :rainbowwild: I loved being on the ship, and especially the people I got to work with. I only ever hated the politics of it all, as well as some of the crappier people there.

Funny thing about the CMC that I heard from my time at nuke school. Originally, the CMC billet didn't exist. But on subs, they had what was called the COB, or Chief of the Boat. That was usually the master chief (also usually the only master chief on board, because subs don't have enough room for a bunch of khakis to take up space). Those on surface ships wanted the same thing as the COB, and so they made up Command Master Chief. I don't know if that's completely true, but I would give it some credit, since a lot of people want the same things that sub guys get, without actually serving on a sub, for whatever reason.

By the way, nuke PO3s were the worst. We basically get PO3 handed to us once we graduate the first phase of nuke school. It's very rare to see a nuke out in the fleet that isn't a PO3 or higher.

2154635 See, I'm in aviation. If there's a PO3 in charge, then either there are no PO2s, or they're all utter dirtbags. :trixieshiftleft:

2154682

For us, PO2s are in key positions because it looks good on evals, not so much because they are qualified to be LPOs. Though we usually get lucky and the good people are put in charge because they care. PO1s have been in those positions too, but they are usually made as the overall division LPOs, so that we have a strong sense of leadership to the other departments. It's hard for me, when I was ET2, to try and talk to a first class about getting stuff done, because they would call out the BS "military bearing" game, or what have you, and would instead talk down to me. Supply was the worst at it, too. there was one time where my divo had to get involved, because they chewed me out about a part order when I was only there to ask a question.

Anyways, the PO3 was a non-nuke mechanic that got an LPO position in reactor department. Pretty much unheard of, because the department heads like to keep nukes in charge, more or less. So for him to get that LPO spot was really good. There's also the fact that he was there for about 5 years by that point, and was a really hard worker for the mechanic division. Right before I left the ship, he finally made MM2, so that was cool to see.

lol, I can't speak much about aviation though. My teacher at college is a former AM3 and was stationed out of Lemoore, but all I really know from him is that he will never go to the Navy ever again, which is a sentiment I've heard looooooooong before I met the guy.

There is even more prrof that Master Chief form Halo was in the Navy. Being human, and assuming he was birthed normally, he did start out as semen.

(I'm sorry, I can't help it. My father went to the naval academy, but was not allowed to physically join the military due to poor eyesight.)

Since we are already at iot I might post the insignia of the Austrian Bundesheer.
Its only a Wiki page but still interesting to note.

Austrian Bundesheer insignia

2152399 Actually, in most commonwealth militaries the Sgt is basically the backbone of the command structure.

@TnaB:

There are a few basic categories. Commissioned officers are specifically trained to be leaders. Enlisted personnel make up the large majority of the manpower of any given military. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) are senior enlisted personnel that lead smaller groups and advise officers. Some militaries have warrant officers, which is a hybrid rank with certain caveats that is generally created from promoting NCOs.

Just a little knowledge for you on the Commonwealth rank system:
Where America has two separate classes of higher Non-Commissioned Member(NCM); Non-Commissioned Officer(NCO) and Specialist, which you can choose which to branch into, the Commonwealth only as one. If you don't stop at the rank of corporal, you get command privileges, and you do advance from NCM to NCO. Everyone in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is a subject matter expert (SME), much like merican Warrants.
CAF Warrants on the other hand, fill a good chunk of roles. the most common one being Sergeant Major, but they can also be advisors to officers, and are quite often the second in command (2iC) of any kind of large formation where an officer is needed.

Just some tidbits on differences between the CW and the US. Cheers.

2164222 Not a coincidence in that case, methinks.

do special operations soldiers follow the ranking system, or are they just ranked as 'specialist'?

if not, then what is a does a specialist do?

when I saw Brigadier, all I could think of was classic Doctor Who.

Also, British army ranks if anyone was interested:
http://www.army.mod.uk/structure/32321.aspx

2171261 A Specialist may have special training in a certain field, but is not listed as an NCO the same way a Corporal is.

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