Ask a soldier thread....

[MobBoss]

That would be a nice, optimal time for settling down with a family, assuming one joined straight out of high school. Myself, I was looking to see if I could pull in some embassy duty somewhere if I got in.

You know, I wish I had more knowledge of how people get such assignments. I assume its a "right time, right place" kind of thing, but the rumor is that is has to do with voodoo and chicken feathers.

All kidding aside, I only ever got one offer like that...in my first re-enlistement I got an offer to be assigned to the Berlin Brigade. Fairly prestigious assignment at that time, but I turned it down as my wife threatened my health if I took it. Regreted it afterwards as it would have put me in the middle of Berlin during the days when the wall came down....

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Sergeant
Lieutenant

The others are spelled correctly. You are missing a few. Here it is.

Private
Private 2nd Class
Private First Class (PFC)
Corporal/Specialist
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant First Class
Master Sergeant/First Sergeant
Sergeant Major
Command Sergeant Major

2nd Lieutenant
1st Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lt. Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier General (1 star)
Major General (2 star)
Lieutenant General (3 star)
General (4 star)

that was alot

 

[Padma]

In the Air Force it's fewer chicken feathers, but more goat entrails.

I got assigned to HQ SAC in 1984 on a 2-yr tour. 10 years later, I got orders for a final overseas tour before retirement....

 

[IglooDame]

that was alot

And mindful, while the Army officer ranks are the same as for the Air Force and Marine Corps, and the Navy officer ranks are the same as for the Coast Guard (as CG said), the Army, AF, and MC enlisted ranks differ from each other here and there.

 

[ybbor]

does getting a college degree automatically qualify you for being an officer? Is a degree required to become an officer?

 

[blackheart]

That would be a nice, optimal time for settling down with a family, assuming one joined straight out of high school. Myself, I was looking to see if I could pull in some embassy duty somewhere if I got in.

My boss at work was a Captain in the Air Force and he got embassy duty. Well, it was more like diplomatic embassy duty, he was on some board or committee representing America in Nato in the 80s (right before the Berlin Wall came down). He said it was a fun and rewarding much, but pretty much deadend for him in terms of getting promoted.

 

[YNCS]

I hope I am not stepping on anyone's toes if I post up the ranks from the US Navy/Coast Guard. Since I do collect small Militaria items such as rank insignias and patches.

Seaman Recruit
Seaman Apprentace
Seaman
Petty Officer 3rd Class
Petty Officer 2nd Class
Petty Officer 1st Class
Chief Petty Officer
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Master Chief Petty Officer/Command Master Chief Petty Officer

Ensign
Lt. Junior Grade
Lieutenant
Lieutenant Commander
Commander
Captain
Rear Admiral Lower Half (aka Commodore) (1 star)
Rear Admiral Upper Half (2 star)
Vice Admiral (3 star)
Admiral (4 star)
Fleet Admiral (5 star)

Not quite.

First of all the E1-E3 grades are split up depending on the job. Deck rates are Seamen, engineering rates are Firemen, aviation rates are Airmen, CB (Construction Battalion) rates are Constructionmen, medical rates are Hospitalmen and Dental Technicians (for some unknown reason, they're not considered a medical rate) are Dentalmen.

E9 is Master Chief. Command Master Chief is a position, not a rank, and is not necessarily an E9. For three months I was the Senior Chief of the Command. That was my title, since I was a Senior Chief (E8), not a Master Chief.

Rear Admiral Lower Half (O7) hasn't been called "Commodore" since the early 1960s. Ship squadrons have Commodores, which is a title rather than a rank. Just like the officer commanding a ship is the Captain, regardless of rank.

BTW, I'm a YNCS(SS), USN (Ret).

(10 points to anyone not active-duty or ex-Navy who can explain what YNCS(SS) means.)

 

[YNCS]

does getting a college degree automatically qualify you for being an officer? Is a degree required to become an officer?

No, a college degree does not automatically qualify one for a commission. I got both BS and MBA degrees while on active duty and stayed an enlisted man. I knew many other enlisted people with degrees, some of them earned before enlistment.

While most officers have degrees, there are some officers, called mustangs in the Navy, who were prior-enlisted and commissioned without degrees. BTW, under DOPMA (Defense Officer Personnel Management Act) an officer cannot be promoted higher than O4 (Major/Lieutenant Commander) without a bachelor's degree.

 

[7ronin]

United States Code Title 50a, Section 1691, act Dec. 14, 1944, ch. 580, § 1, 58 Stat. 802, established Fleet Admiral of United States Navy as the highest grade in the Navy with provision for the appointment of four on the active list at any one time.

United States Code Title 50a, Section 1692, act Dec. 14, 1944, ch. 580, § 2, 58 Stat. 802, established General of the Army as the highest grade in the Army with provision for the appointment of four on the active list at any one time.

Both of these laws were repealed Aug. 10, 1956, by ch. 1041, § 53, 70A Stat. 641, 674.

So while Fleet Admiral and General of the Army still appear on uniform charts and in various DOD and service puplications there is no law now on the books authorizing their use.

 

[blackheart]

Actually isn't 6-stars the highest you can go? Beacuse President Ford made George Washington General of the Armies and declared that no other general can ever outrank Washington.

 

[GenMarshall]

BTW, I'm a YNCS(SS), USN (Ret).

(10 points to anyone not active-duty or ex-Navy who can explain what YNCS(SS) means.)

I have no idea what YNCS stands for and yet both my Mother and Step-father work in a shipyard building subs for the navy .

@YNCS - Please do tell us what was your higest rank you achieved?

 

[GenMarshall]

Actually isn't 6-stars the highest you can go? Beacuse President Ford made George Washington General of the Armies and declared that no other general can ever outrank Washington.

If I remember my World War I history. There was another General who achived that rank, General John Pershing

John Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), the senior U.S. Army General of World War I, was granted the rank of General of the Armies in 1919 in recognition of his performance as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force. General Pershing was offered the option to create his own insignia for the new position, but continued to wear the four stars of a regular General. At the time of Pershing's appointment to the rank, the position was considered more of a title than a rank, comparable to the Civil War title "General of the Army."

The tradition of General of the Armies being considered a six-star rank only began in World War II with the establishment of the five-star rank General of the Army. By order of seniority, it was decided that General Pershing (still living when the rank of General of the Army was created in 1944) would be senior to all the newly appointed General of the Army officers. When asked whether or not this made Pershing a six-star general, the then Secretary of War (Henry L. Stimson) stated that Pershing was superior to a five-star general but, as he was no longer active in the military and had never worn more than four General's stars, he should not be seen as holding six-star rank.

IMO, General of the Armies as well as it's comparative rank Admiral of the Navy are theoretical the highest rank on paper but its considered a special grade.

 

[The Yankee]

Washington is still the seniormost person in the United States. The General of the Armies is only considered "six stars," though I believe the general would be able to make their own insignia. I think McCarthy was up for the rank as well, but that was shot down.

 

[YNCS]

I have no idea what YNCS stands for and yet both my Mother and Step-father work in a shipyard building subs for the navy .

@YNCS - Please do tell us what was your higest rank you achieved?

My highest rank was YNCS.

YN - Yeoman, admin & personnel specialist. (In the various Royal Navies, a Yeoman is a signalman. I can explain why the two are different if you're interested.)

CS - Senior Chief Petty Officer (E8). You'd think it would be SC, but that's the Navy for you.

(SS) - Qualified in submarines.

 

[GenMarshall]

My highest rank was YNCS.

YN - Yeoman, admin & personnel specialist. (In the various Royal Navies, a Yeoman is a signalman. I can explain why the two are different if you're interested.)

CS - Senior Chief Petty Officer (E8). You'd think it would be SC, but that's the Navy for you.

(SS) - Qualified in submarines.

Ok, so I bet you know what is going on in the shipyard where my parents work at building thoes subs for the navy .

@YNCS - What is life like working inside a submarine? How do you manage working and living in a cramped quarters with very little personal space? also this might sound like a silly question but how does the Submarine handle sewage wastes? I heard it varies from boat to boat since my mother who built thoes things oftenly commented the Ohio Class Submaries as giant luxury liners to commenting the Seawolfs as cramped as sarden cans.

 

[YNCS]

You do not go into submarines if you're either claustrophobic or agoraphobic (fear crowds and crowded conditions). The smallest submarine I served in, USS Gato (SSN 615), was 262 feet long and 32 feet in diameter, with a nominal crew of 127. Not a whole lot of privacy, so you better be able to get along with people.

Waste is handled in various ways. The toilets and galley drains all go into what's called a Sanitary Tank. In Gato, this was "Sanitary Tank No 1" or San 1. When San 1 was full, the intake pipes would be shut, the tank pressurized with low pressure air (20 psi on the surface), outlet valves would be opened, and the contents blown out to sea or to an outside holding tank if in port. The showers, head sinks, and forward compartment bilges would drain or be pumped into different holding tanks (San 2 on Gato) and, when full, be pumped to sea using a very large pump called the drain pump. The engineering spaces bilges would be pumped to the Waste Oil Collecting Tank, which would also be emptied by pumping.

I've never been in an Ohio (sailors call them Trident) or a Seawolf boat, so I can't really comment on them. However, when I took my father on a tour of my last boat, USS Dallas (SSN 700), he commented on how roomy she was compared to the WW2 boat he served in.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

In the tradition of all the "ask a XXX" threads I am humbly starting one for those of you that may have questions regarding the US Army and my insights from my career in the military.

Fire away, and I will try to answer as best I can.

Is there a way in which I can wear a cool military uniform and not be misrepresenting my lack of military service?

 

[7ronin]

Is there a way in which I can wear a cool military uniform and not be misrepresenting my lack of military service?

No. In the United States it is against the law.

United States Code TITLE 10, Subtitle A, PART II, CHAPTER 45
§ 771. Unauthorized wearing prohibited
Except as otherwise provided by law, no person except a member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps, as the case may be, may wear—
(1) the uniform, or a distinctive part of the uniform, of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps; or
(2) a uniform any part of which is similar to a distinctive part of the uniform of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps.

The phrase "distinctive part" also applies to military insignia.

 

[malclave]

Is there a way in which I can wear a cool military uniform and not be misrepresenting my lack of military service?

Be in a movie/ TV show as a member of the military.

Although, IIRC, those uniforms always have at least one thing not right about them (and I'm not talking about rolling sleeves here).

 

[7ronin]

Washington is still the seniormost person in the United States. The General of the Armies is only considered "six stars," though I believe the general would be able to make their own insignia. I think McCarthy was up for the rank as well, but that was shot down.

Actually isn't 6-stars the highest you can go? Beacuse President Ford made George Washington General of the Armies and declared that no other general can ever outrank Washington.

Here's the scoop:

Public Law 94-479 (H.J. Res. 519); Oct. 11, 1976

GEORGE WASHINGTON - GENERAL OF THE ARMIES - APPOINTMENT
Joint resolution to provide for the appointment of George Washington to the grade of General of the Armies of the Unites States.

Whereas, Lieutenant General George Washington of Virginia commanded our armies throughout and to the successful termination of our Revolutionary War;

Whereas, Lieutenant General George Washington presided over the convention that formulated our Constitution;

Whereas, Lieutenant General George Washington twice served as President of the United States of America; and

Whereas, it is considered fitting and proper that no officer of the United States Army should outrank Lieutenant General George Washington on the Army List; now therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled

That
(a) for purposes of subsection (b) of this section only, the Grade of General of the Armies of the United States is established, such grade to have rank and precedence over all other grades of the Army, past and present.
(b) The President is authorized and requested to appoint Lieutenant General George Washington posthumously to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States, such appointment to take effect on July 4, 1976.
Approved October 11, 1976

The resolution does not specify an insignia. It's intent judging from the Congressional discussion about it was not to create a new rank as such but to give Washington precedence in seniority over all other Army generals past and present. This was all part of the hoopla surrounding the bicentennial celebrations.

General MacArthur (I think that's who you are referring to) was appointed General of the Army (five stars) on December 18, 1945 along with Generals Marshall (Dec 16), Eisenhower (Dec 20), and Arnold (Dec 21). Arnold retired in 1946, but since the five star rank was for life, he became the first and only General of the Air Force in 1947.