Re: WAS - BN FMA: Some questions and thoughts

Hello, 

>From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@veriomail.com>
>Subject: BN FMA:  Some questions and thoughts
>

<snip>

>4. Commissioned Officers/Warrant Officers/Non-Commissioned Officers: 
> Commissioned officers are commissioned by their Government to Military
rank. 
> Commissioned Officers give orders that have the force of law.  Warrant

>officers are typically technical specialists (senior mechanics, MP,
pilots) 
>that have a Warrant from the their government.  The key difference is
that 
>Commissioned officers are meant to command and lead, where Warrant
officers are 
>highly skilled technicians that may lead.  Which brings us to
Non-Commissioned 
>Officers (NCO).  They are promoted from the ranks and are usually long
service 
>professionals.  They are the trainers/motivators/knowledge base of the
unit. 

In the US services.

In Commonwealth forces (well, in the Canadian and, I believe, UK forces
anyway...) Warrent Officers are different than this.  I don't know about
the Australian and New Zealand armies, though I expect they follow a
similar pattern.

While the US has NCO's in "command/leadership" positions, up to Command
Master Chief Uber Petty Sergeant First Class of the Army (ok, I'm
kidding...) and then a *separate* group of people who are Warrents and
have
a specialized trade (like army helo pilots), in the Canadian and UK
armies,
the Warrent Officers *are* the senior NCO's.

The Canadian army only has one "sergeant" rank, and that is Sergeant. 
S/he
would be a section (squad) leader, normally (or equivalent function in a
non-infantry unit).  The senior NCO in a platoon is a Warrent Officer
(WOIII), the senior NCO in a company is a Master Warrent Officer (WOII),
and the senior NCO in a battalion is a Chief Warrent Officer (WOI). 
People
who have senior technical qualifications don't have a separate rank
system
- which makes for some interesting situations, where you have extremely
highly qualified technical specialists who have not taken any
command/leadership courses getting stuck at a relatively low rank.  I've
seen a couple of Corporals who looked like they were in their '40's.

Unfortunately, the same doesn't seem to hold true in the Officer ranks.
There are a *lot* of officers who are technical specialists of one type
or
another who have limited leadership training and couldn't lead their way
out of a paper bag, with a flashlight.	They usually get as far as
"Captain" and then stick there (I believe once you're an officer, you
can
make Captain just by being in long enough, but to get past it you have
to
have more serious leadership quals).  Even still, a Captain has lot of
legal authority, and a 2nd Lieutenant outranks an RSM...  (well, sort
of...)

>
>Sorry to ramble...
>

Heh

No worries.

Lots of us have been known to ramble on a bit, every now and then... ;)

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

Adrian Johnson
adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca