Re: [Service] Ranks and Designations

Hi folks,

>The point of all this is that the same job doesn't even go by the same
>name or number (identification) in all the services of the USA. 
>Corpsman/Medic/Med Tech for example.  How does it work in the other
>military force?  Is a German Air Force Medic called the same title as a
>German Army Medic?  As a German Navy Medic?  How about the UK? Canada? 
>Australia?  Anyone else?

Well, here's to throwing monkey wrenches into a nice "simple" system...

In the CF, there are certain trades that are specific to one branch of
the
service, but used in all three.  Firefighters, for example.  Anything to
do
with aviation, is another.  The Canadian military went through (is still
going through) a gut-wrenching process way back in the late '60's and
early
'70's of trying to rationalize itself and organize itself as a single
service, without the infighting and redundancy that goes on in armed
forces
that have distinct services (ie the US, Britain, etc).	In effect, they
got
rid of the Canadian Army, the RCN (navy), and the RCAF (airforce), and
all
became the "Canadian Forces".  Originally, the idea was supposed to be
something akin to the US Marine Corps - where everyone is first a
Marine,
but all are supposed to be trained to work together relatively
harmoniously
- certainly more so than, for example, the airforce was trained to work
with the army.	One effect of this was the elimination of service
uniforms
- so everyone wore the same bottle green.... 

It failed utterly in most cases, and led to many other countries looking
at
us oddly.  We still don't actually have a *separate* army or navy or
airforce - they're the Land Force Component, or something like that... 

The airforce gained control of all things flying.  So, all pilots,
technicians, and other flight-related personnel stationed on Navy ships
are
*all* members of the airforce.	All figherfighters are from a single
service branch (and I think it is army, but I'm not sure), so on a ship
you
have naval members (running the ship) though you might have army medics
assigned, you will have airforce members operating the helicopters,
you'll
have army figherfighters as part of the air detachment, etc...

I've seen news footage of army combat units deployed in the former
Yugoslavia where the media-affairs person condicting an interview is a
navy
officer wearing combat fagitues.  

I suppose it sort of makes sense... if you have one school training all
the
"x" and those "x" people are used for all service branches, it reduces
redundancy.

Didn't in any way stop the inter-service rivalries or competitiveness,
however...

***************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian@stargrunt.ca
http://www.stargrunt.ca

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