WAS: RE: [OT] Sevice, now RANKS, which isn't really OT if you use your imagination...

Hi folks,

>>How about the ranking and titles in other nations
>>militaries?
>
>That gets more complex and gap-ish.
>
>For example, in the British Army, they progress as
>Pvt, Lance Cpl, Cpl, Sgt, Staff Sgt, WO 2nd, WO 1st.
>The US However, adds sgt, staff sgt, sgt 1st class, 1st sgt, between 
>the British Cpl and Sgt ranks with a US master sgt being equivalent 
>to Sgt in the British army.
>
>see
>http://www.av8.org/av8fst-uk/ranks.html

Yeah.  It can be difficult to compare ranks of the same name directly
across different nations' militaries - they have different
responsibilities, etc.

In the British Army, for example, a Corporal is a real NCO rank - they
have
command responsibility (over, for example, a fire team or equiv.).  In
the
Canadian Army, Corporal is a "holding" or "qualification" rank -
everyone
gets there eventually if you have sufficient time in and the right
training.  So in the infantry, you might have a section (squad) with two
or
three Corporals who don't actually have any command responsibility per
se
(well, maybe they're the senior of a pair of "fire team buddies" or
whatever they call it).  John A. was telling us a while back that the US
army sometimes makes people "Corporals" as a means of putting them in a
position of greater responsibility without actually promoting them to a
"real" NCO rank (Sergeant) if they don't yet have the sergeant's course.

In the CF, a section commander would be a Master Corporal or Sergeant,
and
the platoon's senior NCO would normally be a Warrant Officer.  I don't
know
why we have Master Corporals... I think that's descended from the
"Caporal
Chef" tradition in the French military or something...	I know they
wanted
to eliminate the old "Lance Corporal" rank we used to have, in an effort
to
try to remove some of the overt British influence and develop
"Canadianness" or some such silliness.

FWIW, the Canadian Army non-comissioned ranks are:

Private - Recruit (Pte(R))
Private (Pte)
Corporal (Cpl)
Master Corporal (MCpl)
Sergeant (Sgt)
Warrant Officer (WO)
Master Warrant Officer (MWO)
Chief Warrant Officer (CWO)

The comissioned ranks are basically the same as the US, though the
responsibilities at each rank level are somewhat different.

For example, in the US army, Lieutenants command platoons (normally) and
Captains command companies (normally) - though that's generalizing and
there are lots of exceptions.  In the Canadian army, Lieutenants command
platoons also (normally), but Majors command companies.  An infantry
company would have a Major commanding, a couple of Captains (one as 2ic
and
the other as the "Battle Captain") and Lieutenants as platoon leaders.

Anyway, don't want to put everyone to sleep here... ;)

-Adrian

PS - Hey, John - I didn't know your promotion to Sgt came through.  I
remember when you did the course, but didn't hear you actually got the
rank.  Congrats!!!

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

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

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