Enlisted Military Ranks as one of the worst jobs

I served in the Army 74-77 and reached the rank of Spec 4. I guess I was lucky because looking back on it, I was trained and supervised by good men, good NCOs. I was a military policeman, and we were responsible for base law enforcement and gate duty, so it was very much like a regular job. If we were in the patrol rotation, we didn't have to show up for morning formation because of the 24/7 nature of our job. There were occasional room inspections and discipline where necessary, but nothing outrageous.

But the best thing about having served is the self satisfaction and pride in having done it. No one can take that away from me. I can't even tell you how many people I've met through my lifetime who tell me they never served, but they wish they had. I will never have to feel that way.

To all the veterans reading this thread, cheers!

 

When I was in, LCpl was a do-everything rank. This was the point in life when a Marine knows what he is doing.

And Corporal was a leadership rank which normally trained and supervised others.

Sergeant was a slack-off rank, and Staff Sergeant was a trouble making rank.

Gunny was in charge of all the rest and somehow had to get everybody else to do all the work. These were the toughest NCO's in the USMC.

Further up in the officer scale, 2nd lieutenants did not know jack apple sh!t.

1st lieutenants were competent officers however who like LCpl's knew what they were doing finally.

Then Captains were again incompetent know nothings.

Majors however knew their sh!t. These were the toughest officers in the USMC.

Lt Col's ran the show. Most of their time was spent on judicial and nonjudicial punishments and also sending reports up to the Colonels at Regiment.

Colonel is the best job. They have LtCol's running around doing all the work while they themselves just give orders and forward reports up to the General.

 

Not exactly VietVet.

You served when I served. Not knowing if you went through recruit training at MCRDSD or MCRDPI, I did it at MCRDSD.

Back during the Viet Nam War era Marine Corps boot camp had a special recruit training company made up of a CC Plt. (Correctional Custody) , Motivation Plat. and the Physical Fitness Plt., (Fat Farm.)

The CC platoon was giving a maggot one last chance of going along with the program or facing a court martial and ending up at the Portsmouth Naval Prison.

The CC Plat. was declared by liberals in Congress to be politically incorrect during the late 1970's.
But it consisted with a lot of PT, hard labor just as with the Motivation Plt. would be subject too.

The Motivation Plt. consisted with a lot of phycological **** like standing in front of a mirror butt naked from reveille to taps.
If you weren't putting out 100% you were likely to be sent to the Motivation Plat. After a few weeks you were motivated and would put out 101%.

The "Fat Farm" PT platoon is where recruits were sent who failed the initial PFT or would fall out on runs. With in a few weeks or a month or more they reentered the program being assigned to a recruit training platoon being in pretty good physical shape.

All of the tree platoons worked.

But during the late 1970's liberals in Congress declared the CC and Motivation Platoons to be politically incorrect along with Red Line Brigs.

 

Cherry LTs...lol

 

lol - Never! (I do love choppers though... they are bad azz, to say the least.) Still there is nothing like flight operations on an Aircraft carrier. FLY NAVY!. By the way, you guys got lucky last year! Navy should have won that game. lol

Next thing you will tell me is you are Green Bay Packer fan.

 

Hey old timer, it's been Specialist, not Spec 4, since the 1980's.

 

You have a point about corporals, but I wasn't in combat arms so very rarely in my career did I run into them. They were very uncommon in my branch.

 

1980 is when I got out and went back to grad school.

Spec-Four sounds cooler to me.

 

Sounds like it worked pretty good back in those days. The USMC method of instruction is to keep it simple plus break things down into steps. This is an excellent teaching method that works with anybody -- bright and not so bright.

I used this method in grad school after getting out of the USMC and for teaching college level technical writing. It worked like a charm. Out of 125 students that I taught over 3 semesters, only 2 of them did not get it. One was a dope smoking Susie from Marysville Calif. and the other was a professor's son who had had everything in college including his scholarship spoon fed to him.

These 2 losers simply did not want to pay attention. Sounds like motivation platoon would have worked for them quite well.

 

Learning curve takes time.

Corporal and 1st Lieutenant are levels which have each had 2 to 3 years of learning curve, so they both know what they are doing. I never could figure out why a lot of buck sergeants were slackers compared with the corporals. For the captains the problem is/was that they were again thrown into a situation where they needed more time to learn their jobs. By major they had everything figured out.

 

This is why I never considered OCS like the rest of my family. Enlisted: I do the job I signed up to do for a long time. I'll also get leadership training.
Officer: I BRANCH (not selected job) a certain branch, be a platoon leader, maybe jump to XO then CC. Then it's back to being at the bottom of the podium again at the battalion level.

 

OCS for the Army and the Navy gets short shrifted. You really need at least ROTC/NROTC for a good basis in military science.

OCS for the USMC is not differentiated from their equivalent of PLC. USMC officers get over 9 months of training before they show up in their first company.

I can't speak for the USCG or USAF. Have not been around them much.

 

My last two 2LTs were both prior enlisted so they did a great job

 

We call those "mustangs".

The troops love them because they share a common experience.

The other officers hate them because normally they don't share a common lack of experience.

 

Yep Mustang is still around lol

 

Mustangs and OCS typically share the same destiny.

They make it to O-4 at the most and then they are retired.

ROTC/NROTC usually can make it to O-6.

For general you normally had to go to one of the academies.

 

The rich kids don't serve as a rule. They know that the poor kids from Appalachia, Harlem, the Barrios of LA and the rust belt will pick up the slack since they have nothing going for them in civilian life.

 

I see Gy. Sgt. Dick Gaines is still around even though his Gunny G's Old Corps Marine websites is no more except when using the Way Back Machine.

 

My first MOS was 27E, then I jumped to being a 71L, then I jumped over to being a 52D in the Army....I just loved learning as much as I could....

 

Great history. Very complicated.

When I had to memorize all this for the first time in infantry school, I just remembered that corporals were fire team leaders, and sergeants were squad leaders. Then later I learned that the gunny was the company CO's top field NCO while the first sergeant was his top office admin NCO.

I did not know "lance" meant temporary, such as brevet for officers. Custer in history was a brevet general with a permanent Lt.Col. ranking.

And I had never heard of a lance sergeant ever. Great history thanks @APACHERAT .

 

Very few people know that all of the American Revolutionary military branches were organized at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia. Marines often think only the USMC was organized there. But this is where Benjamin Franklin the Grandmaster of the Pennsylvania Lodge of Freemasons was running the Revolution out of. It was the meeting place for the St. Johns' Lodge #1 in Pennsylvania.

First Franklin organized the Continental Army on June 14, 1775 and appointed Washington as its commander.

Then he organized the Continental Navy on Oct 13, 1775. There were several admirals and captains appointed before John Paul Jones, who himself however ended up being the most successful of them all.

For the Navy as sharpshooters onboard ships, the Marines were then organized on Nov 10, 1775. John Paul Jones' biography tells about their exploits in battle on board his ships. The other Continental Navy ships were all mostly defeated by the British. Jones was the only successful fighting sea captain.

The resolutions of the Continental Congress were done at various locations starting at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, but all the work itself was conducted at Tun Tavern. That was Franklin's favorite pub.

Tun Tavern has been torn down since. But there is a plaque marker on the street located near where it used to be not far from it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tun_Tavern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Army

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Navy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Marines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_the_Confederation#Meeting_sites

 

Rich kids certainly serve in the military. There's an E3 that I've been great friends with for a few years who's father owns chains of hotels in many countries. He decided college wasn't for him and wanted to serve.

Civilians think all soldiers are poor kids. It's just a testament to their ignorance.