Re: Force sizes-Confusing US ranks

LOL! Now that is what you get when the Federal Government lays down a 
standard and the Armed Forces throw in a good dose of tradition.

The O and E structure is uniform through out the US military, with O 
standing for Officer and E standing for Enlisted. You can also throw in
a 
set of WO for warrent officer, a rank no one really seems to understand 
other than they out rank enlisted types, and in turn are out ranked by 
'real' officers. Guess it gives them most of the authority of an officer

without the pay. You gotta love congress! :P

Any way, the branches of the US armed forces take that rank structure
and 
hang their own hats on it: for example, an e-3 in the Army is a Private 
First Class, while the same e-3 in the Marine Corps is called a lance 
corporal... and you got me what the Navy and the Air Corps (snickers)
call 
that rank (sorry for that little interservice jab up there ;).

To confuse that even more the Amry use to have a parallel rank called 
Specalist, which started at E-4 and went up to something like E-7! These

guys were usually 'not' combat troops... guess the Army wanted to keep
the 
'real' titles in the Infantry. That changed in the 80's with the
exception 
of the E-4 rank... which can either be a specalist, a guy who has the
grade 
and pay, but hasn't gone to PLDC or the Primary Leadership Development 
Course, and so CAN'T be promoted to Sergeant. Not going to PLDC, in
peace 
time, and being an E-4 means that you are well on your way to becoming a
PFC 
(private f&*(%^$ civilan) once again ;)

If all of this mess makes you want to go running around while pulliing
your 
hair and screaming, don't feel too alone ;)

HOPS VINCET! ATWTMATMUTATB

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