Army knowledge only! Hope this helps.
OFFICER 101
O1 = second lieutenant, also called a "Gold Bar" for the little gold bar of his or her rank. These are usually your platoon leaders
(20-45 troops). They are paired with a Sergeant First Class (SFC, or E-7) as their platoon sergeant. In the Army, you are promoted from 2LT to 1LT in 18 months, so your gold bars are THE MOST JUNIOR guys in their platoon, usually. The lowliest PFC in their unit has been promoted two more times than they have. They are usually straight out of school, and without a strong non-commissioned officer to back them will fall on their faces.
O2 = first lieutenant. They wear a black bar, or a silver bar in a dress uniform. These can be platoon leaders
(20-45 troops), or perhaps Executive Officers for companies. You may also see them serving in staff positions in Battalions. They will typically get promoted to Captain within 36 months, so you're talking about someone with a little more time under their belt, but still relatively junior. Again, when in a platoon, they are paired with an E7 (sometimes a "promotable" E6, which is a Staff Sergeant).
O3 = Captain. These are your company commanders
(100-200 troops), primary staffers on Battalion staffs, or junior staff officers at the brigade level. They have been in the Army anywhere from 4-8 years (8 is generally when they are promoted to Major, the next higher grade). These guys are the moneymakers for the Army (says the Captain
). They are the ones who are actually ON THE GROUND making decisions, or being worker bees on the staff.
An E8, called a Master Sergeant if they are on a staff somewhere, or a First Sergeant if they are in charge of a company, works as the Company Commander's Battle Buddy. (I have never met an E8 who was a platoon sergeant. That would be a waste of an E8, honestly, and would look awful on their NCO Evaluation Report. Unless they're a shitbag, in which case they have no business leading a platoon anyway.)
Majors (O4s) are usually Executive Officers of battalions, or Primary staff officers at the Brigade level (or junior staff officers at the Division level). A Major is a staff rank. They are generally paired with an E8 or E9 (Sergeant Major) as their Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC). They are never in command of anything, unless they are standing in for their boss if he/she has been relieved or is on vacation.
Lieutenant Colonels (O5s) are your Battalion Commanders
(600-1000 troops), occasionally found as Staff officers at Brigade, and usually primary staff officers at Division or Corps level. They are paired with E9s -- either as a Command Sergeant Major (his battle buddy in a battalion) or as a Sergeant Major on staff.
Colonels (O6s) are also paired with E9s. They are your Brigade commanders
(3000-6000 troops), staff officers at Division, Corps or higher, and they make coffee at the pentagon.
Brigadier Generals (O7s, or One-Stars) can serve a couple of functions. In the logisitics world, they can be the command general in charge of a Sustainment Command. In the combat arms world, they are the Deputy Commanding Generals of either Support or Operations -- they work directly for the Commanding General (who is a Two-Star at Division Level).
Major Generals are Two-Stars. They are in charge of Divisions
(20-30 thousand troops), or working up at the Pentagon as mid-grade staffers.
Lieutenant Generals are Three-Stars. They are your Corps Commanders
(60 thousand troops +), or they are the primary staff officers at the Pentagon.
Generals are Four Stars. They are the commanders of what is called a MACOM, or Major Command
(200,000 troops). Ie, GEN David Petraeus, who is the Multi-National Forces-Iraq commander. Nobody outranks them, except a 5 star, and we haven't had one of those in decades.
So, to give an example from my chain of command, when I was a platoon leader:
Forces Command: GEN Campbell (current, forget who it used to be)
18th Airborne Corps: LTG Vines
3rd Infantry Division: MG Webster
36th Engineer Group (Brigade): COL Brooks
92nd Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy): LTC Landry
92nd Chemical Company: CPT Porter
3rd Platoon: 2LT Paichka
Non-Commissioned Officers are never in the chain of command, because technically, they aren't in command of anything. They have RESPONSIBILITY for the Soldiers under their guidon (organizational flag), but have no authority to bring the Uniform Code of Military Justice, sign orders, etc. They're vitally important to good standards and discipline in the unit, and an officer is borderline incompetant if he doesn't make good use of them.
FinbarReilly said:
Keep in mind that this chain of command goes down as well; a platoon is likely to have an 01/O2 as well as a first sergeant (E8). The platoon would have sergeants in charge of its squads, and then corporals or specialists in charge of its fire teams.
Depends on the unit. Sergeants (E5s) are usually team leaders. Staff Sergeants (E6s) are usually your squad leaders. Obviously that can change, depending on where your studs are or who you actually have assigned to your formation, but the way the set up is SUPPOSED to work [in an infantry rifle platoon] is:
A company has 4 platoons (CPT/E8)
A platoon as 4 squads (LT/E7)
A squad as two teams (SSG = squad, E5 = team)
A team has 4 Soldiers (E5 = team, E4 = buddy team leader)
FinbarReilly said:
It's important to note that positions that need to act independently may have an officer or NCO assigned to them. The company chaplain, for example, requires a certain amount of weight, so he's likely to be an O3.
Our chaplains serve at Battalion level -- I've never seen one assigned to a company. There just aren't enough of them to go around, generally. Battalion chaplains are usually Captains, Brigade Chaplains are usually Majors.
FinbarReilly said:
However, the company's JAG rep doesn't really require as much weight (he's usually just the equivalent of a paralegal), so he's likely to be corporal or specialist (E4).
In my unit, our companies do not have JAG reps, even specialists. We have personnel clerks at the company level; all of our JAG representatives (From the Brigade Judge Advocate, who is a Captain, to her clerks, who are all Sergeants) work at the Brigade level. Even Battalion doesn't have a JAG.
FinbarReilly said:
And just to mess you up: Warrant officers. Usually restricted to small craft (such as helicopters), they are used as sort an intermediary rank between NCO's and officers, where it's important to have to an officer, but not one of an actual rank.
Warrants also are your TECHNICAL specialists. They do most of the flying in aviation units, and in logistics units will be your subject matter experts on maintenance, ammunition, food service, and signal communications. They are probably the most important officers in the unit for the breadth of their technical knowledge. And I take exception with the "actual rank" thing.
Warrant Officers are every bit as much of an Officer as I am, even though even my CW5s (chief warrant officer -5, the highest ranking warrant officer) have to call me ma'am. A WO1 (lowliest warrant officer rank) outranks the Sergeant Major of the Army.
FinbarReilly said:
Also, cadets: Essentially an O0, they have whatever power is assigned to them. Strictly speaking, even a private E-1 outranks them, but they are given the courtesy due to officers out of respect of what they will become (including being called "sir"). They are assigned to companies in order to give them leadership experience. It's unlikely that they would be assigned a combat mission, but it does happen.
This is a great program -- cadets (at least from West Point and ROTC), have the opportunity to "shadow" a lieutenant for two to three weeks; this is called Cadet Troop Leadership Program. The combat mission assignment is a little misleading. A cadet would
never go to Iraq or Afghanistan, so they would never get a "combat" mission.
I have, however, seen a cadet get a mission during training exercises. When we were out in the field prepping for OIF III, we had a couple of West Point cadets get assigned to my company. We let them run a movement to contact for practice. They totally got slaughtered.
HTH!
