More Military

Yesterday, I tried to figure out all the US Army ranks.  I wrote them all down, which always helps to fix something in your memory, but I have to admit that if you ask me in a couple weeks if a Staff Sergeant outranks a Master Sergeant, I'm not sure I'll have better than a 50-50 chance of getting it right.

At any rate, today I'll take a quick visit through the other Armed Forces-- that's right, it's a SEQUEL!  To a blog post!  Aren't you excited?  For obvious reasons, the other branches of the US military are organized in a very similar fashion, so instead of just listing everything, I'm just going to note the differences, which should keep this post shorter*.  That should get you excited, if nothing else.

So, first up, the Marines.  The main differences in the Marine structure seem to be the addition of an extra rank for the enlisted men, called the Lance Corporal, in between the Private First Class and the Corporal.  The ranks of the Sergeants are also slightly different, with a Gunnery Sergeant replacing the Sergeant First Class, and a Master Gunnery Sergeant replacing the Command Sergeant Major only ranking below the Sergeant Major instead of above.  The warrant officers and officer ranks seem to be basically the same, although there is apparently no five-star rank for Marines, so no equivalent of the General of the Army.

Next, the Air Force.  The warrant officers and officers, again, are basically the same, although here there is a five-star General of the Air Force.  For the enlisted men, the main difference is that the ranks of Private are replaced with the equivalent ranks of Airmen.  Again, the Sergeant ranks are slightly shuffled and renamed, but fundamentally the same.

Finally, the Navy, which just has to be different.  For starters, there are no ranks in the US Navy-- they're called "rates" instead.  Second, instead of Privates they have Seamen.  NO JOKES PLEASE.  I'm sure they've heard them all before.  And no Sergeants!  Instead, the Navy has Petty Officers, in the same basic pattern (Chief, Master, etc.).  Warrant Officers, at least, are like all the other branches.  But again, the officers just have to be different.  There's a completely new rank (sorry, rate) of Ensign shoehorned in at the bottom, bumping all of the others up a grade, so that a Navy Lieutenant outranks an Army First Lieutenant (O-3 to O-2).  Instead of Colonels and Lt. Colonels, you have the Commander and Lt. Commander, and then the Captain (O-6 instead of the Army's O-3), and then various Admirals instead of Generals, from Rear up to Fleet (the Navy's 5-star officer).

M*A*S*H helped me remember the Army ranks-- maybe I can rely on Star Trek to help with the Navy?

Maybe?

*Well, it was worth a shot.