In the military, what is the hierarchy of people?

Question

I don't know what the exact term is, but what are the different rankings in the military? (major, lieutenant, general, etc.) Which is more prestigious? Do different divisions govern others?

Answer 1

Great question! Before I get into the chain of command and rank structure, let me start off first with the fact that everyone in the military answers to the Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) and ultimately the President of the United States (POTUS). That is one of the great things about our military, that it is subject to civilian oversight and leadership. Ok, so, within each armed service branch (Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy) they have Officers (Commissioned, Warrant, and Non-Commissioned - we'll get into the differences in a minute) and Enlisted personnel (this includes Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO's)). Enlisted personnel typically do most of the grunt work; someone says jump, they say how high. They are usually responsible for themselves and maybe their team or squad. NCO's are the backbone of the military. They receive their orders from their leadership/Chain of Command and make sure that those orders are carried out. NCO's are also the senior Enlisted personnel in their respective units and are senior advisors to the Commissioned Officers in their units. Commissioned Officers are the senior personnel in the military. They make the policies, they draw up the missions and they pretty much run the military. They answer to their senior Officers all the way up to the POTUS. Officers are commissioned by Congress and authorized by the President to serve in the military for a set number of years. Now, Warrant Officers are different from Commissioned Officers, as they are issued a warrant by Congress to serve as specialists in a certain field and are Commissioned once they reach the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CWO2). Unlike Commissioned Officers, Warrant Officers usually do not lead troops as a Commissioned Officer would.

Now, as for rank, each branch has different names for Enlisted and Officers, but their grade is still the same. For instance, a Private First Class in the Army would have a pay grade of E-3, and would be equal to a Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps who would also be an E-3. Like wise, a Navy Captain would be an O-6 pay grade, and would be equal in responsibility to an Army, Air Force, or Marine Colonel, also O-6.

Check this site for more on ranks and heirarchy:

http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insi...

As for the structure, check this website to see how the Department of Defense is broken down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stat...

I hope this helps, most of it was off the top of my head!

Answer 2

The highest rank is a four star general, then comes a three star general or Lt. General, then Major Gen,with two stars and a brigadier general with one star.  After Generals, in descending order: Colonel, Lt.Colonel, Major, Captain, first Lieutenant, second Lt., Chief Warrant Officer, Warrant officer Junior grade, Master Sgt, Tech Sgt, Staff Sgt, Sgt, Corporal, PFC and buck private.

Answer 3

Enlisted ranks from bottom to top:

Private: E-1

Private: E-2

Private First Class: E-3

Specialist or Corporal: E-4

Sergeant: E-5

Staff Sergeant: E-6

Sergeant First Class: E-7

Master Sergeant or First Sergeant: E-8

Command Sergeant Major: E-9

Officer ranks from bottom to top

2nd Lieutenant: 0-1

1st Lieutenant: 0-2

Captain: 0-3

Major: 0-4

Lieutenant Colonel: 0-5

Colonel: 0-6

Brigadier General: 0-7

Major General: 0-8

Lieutenant General: 0-9

General: 0-10

This is rank and pay grade for the Army.  Each of the services is a little bit different.

Answer 4

Each branch has a different name. Where the Marines call it a Private, the Navy calls it a Seaman Recruit, the AF calls it somewhere else, the Army also calls it Private, for example. For the rank names, you'll have to look them up individually.

But you were also asking about different divisions. No matter what branch you're in, you have the same designations.

E = Enlisted

O = Officer

E-1 = Enlisted person of the 1st rank (Private)

E-2 = Enlisted person of the 2nd rank and so on. Same with the O.

Officers are always in charge of enlisted personnel. Even if it's a new officer, an O-1, and there's a salty enlisted person, like an E-8, the officer is still in charge. Officers are also the ones who get saluted.

E-1 to E-3 is called "non-NCO," where NCO = Non-Commissioned Officer. They aren't officers or anything, that's just the name they have.

E-4 to E-5 is NCO.

E-6 to E-9 (highest enlisted rank) is called SNCO, where the S = Staff. Some refer to the E-8 and E-9 ranks as "senior SNCO's."

The officers do not have this kind of designation. They're all officers.

Okay, so officers are all in charge of the enlisted. The higher rank the officer, the more people he or she is in charge of. An O-2 is in charge of all the enlisted and O-1's in his/her command. An O-3 is in charge of all the enlisted and O-1's and O-2's in his/her command, and so on. NCO's are in charge of non-NCO's, SNCO's are in charge of NCO's and non-NCO's. They like to pass information down, so an O-5 will tell the officers in charge (all O-4 and below, usually, because an O-5 is in command), and then those officers will tell lower ranking officers, and they'll tell their enlisted men and women.

A battalion has several companies, and a company has several platoons. A battalion has a commander (officer, O-5 or higher usually), and usually a senior enlisted (E-9, usually). Each company has the same thing, a commanding officer and senior enlisted who run the company, but they are typically lower (rarely but sometimes equal or very rarely higher) in rank than the battalion commander and senior enlisted. Then, each platoon also has a commander and senior enlisted, usually about equal in rank to the company's officer and senior enlisted.

As you can see, the company is in charge of their platoons, and the battalion is in charge of their companies. This means that the commanding officer in charge of the company can tell the commanding officer in charge of their platoons what to do, even if the commanding officer in a platoon out-ranks the commanding officer of the company. The job someone holds is called a "billet," and the billets are very important. For example, during a deployment, we were very short-handed back home. We ended up having a Sergeant (E-5) in a billet for a Gunnery Sergeant (E-7). This means that an E-5 was giving orders to SNCO's. They had to listen, because the billet speaks louder than the rank.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

I'm on top of the heap!

General - top

Private - bottom