About the Military Many journalists and
other advocates may possess a limited understanding
of the military, which in turn can lead to a limited
understanding of how the “Don’t Ask, Don’t
Tell” policy affects servicemembers. While MEA
cannot teach you everything about the military, here
are a few “Frequently Asked Questions” that
we believe will deepen your understanding and appreciation
of the military:
What are the “armed forces”?
The U.S. armed forces consist of the Army, Navy, Air
Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. Of these, the first
four are controlled by the Department of Defense. The
U.S. Coast Guard is controlled by the Department of
Homeland Security, except when it is taking part in
U.S. Navy operations. The “armed forces”
consist of active duty, Reserve, and National Guard
personnel. When you hear a reference to “active
duty personnel,” this generally refers to people
who are working in the military full-time, for whom
the military is their primary career.
As of 2004, there were approximately 1.4 million servicemembers
on active duty. The breakdown by branch is as follows:
Army 500,000
Navy 375,000
Air Force 359,000
Marines 176,000
Coast Guard 40,000
The Urban Institute conducted a study of GLBT veterans
and servicemembers in 2005, based on the 2000 Census,
and concluded that there were 65,000 gay and lesbian
servicemembers currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Of those, about 36,000 were on active duty, representing
2.5 percent of active duty personnel. The remainder
are in the Reserves or National Guard. To read the Urban
Institute study, click
here:
How do I make sense of the military’s rank structure?
It is first helpful to understand the difference between
officers and enlisted personnel.
Enlisted personnel are those who simply enlist in the
military without attending any sort of training that
would give them an officer’s commission. While
some enlisted personnel have had some college education,
and many more acquire a college degree and even advanced
degrees as they progress through the ranks, a college
degree is not a prerequisite to enlistment.
Commissioned officers, by contrast, receive a “commission,”
a certificate issued by the President of the United
States, and must go through one of several training
programs before receiving such a commission, all of
which generally require a four-year college degree.
Currently there are three main routes to becoming an
officer: the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps
(ROTC), a training program that occurs in conjunction
with a four-year college education at a civilian college
campus; the military service academies (West Point,
the U.S. Naval Academy, etc.), which offers full-time
military instruction as well as a four-year college
degree on an all-military campus; and Officer Candidate
School (OCS), an intense training program approximately
14 weeks in duration. There is also a special category
of officers called “warrant officers,” who
receive a “warrant” from their respective
military branches rather than a commission from the
President.
A Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) is an enlisted person
who has progressed through the enlisted ranks to a position
in which he or she supervises other enlisted personnel.
In most branches of the service, NCOs have a title with
the word “sergeant” in it. In the Navy,
NCOs are referred to as “petty officers”
rather than sergeants.
Each of the services has different names for its different
officer and enlisted personnel, reflective of long-standing
traditions. However, each of the branches has the same
pay grades for officers and enlisted personnel. Thus,
an E-1 may be called a “Private” in the
Army or Marines and a “Seaman Recruit” in
the Navy, but they all earn the same pay, and once you
know that someone is an E-1, you know that this person
is at the very bottom of the totem pole (in fact, an
E-1 is very likely still in basic training). Likewise,
an O-3 is called a “Captain” in the Army
but a “Lieutenant” in the Navy, and in the
Navy an O-6 is called a “Captain,” whereas
in the Army an O-6 is a “Colonel.” However,
when you know that someone is an O-3, you can usually
surmise that this is an officer who has spent somewhere
between 4-8 years in the military, whereas if you know
the person is an O-6, you know that the person is a
fairly senior officer (though junior to a general or
admiral, whose pay grades start at O-7), and also may
be nearing retirement. Thus, if you’re confused
about what someone’s title and rank is, ask what
pay grade he or she has or had.
You can see the titles and rank insignia of all the
enlisted and officer ranks for all branches of the service
at http://www.dod.mil/specials/insignias/enlisted.html
and http://www.dod.mil/specials/insignias/officers.html.
To get a sense of the pay scales, and the difference
between officer and enlisted pay, compare the E-1 through
E-9 pay scales at http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/pay/bl06enlbasepay.htm
to the O-1 through O-10 pay scales at http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/pay/bl06offbasepay.htm.
What do military servicemembers literally do all day
long?
It depends completely upon the branch of service, the
unit, and the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)
to which the servicemember has been assigned. However,
it is worth noting that approximately 70% of all military
specialties are non-combat-related. The majority of
military servicemembers do not train for or engage in
combat as their primary wartime mission. They are engaged
in work such as vehicle maintenance, logistical support,
communications, provision of medical care, intelligence
gathering, legal work, accounting, human resources,
public affairs, or any of a variety of other support
functions.
All the branches of the military require all servicemembers
to maintain a certain basic level of readiness for combat,
which usually requires regular physical fitness training,
adherence to height/weight standards, and occasional
training in basic combat skills such as rifle marksmanship.
Those in combat-related specialties, such as infantry,
artillery, naval surface warfare, etc. will spend a
great deal of their time simply training and re-training
on all the skills they will need in combat, with less
time engaged in support functions such as vehicle maintenance.
Those in non-combat-related specialties will tend to
spend more time providing support for other units, and
less time training for combat themselves. A vehicle
maintenance unit, for example, may have a daily schedule
that is not significantly different from a large auto
repair shop. Military police units may conduct themselves
similarly to a police precinct.
NCOs and officers are responsible for providing two
different types of supervision over subordinate personnel;
officers will tend to be more responsible for the planning,
whereas NCOs will tend to be more responsible for the
execution of the plan. For example, it may be a requirement
by regulation that all soldiers within an Army platoon
receive a qualifying score on M16 rifle marksmanship
at least once per year. If so, it will be the job of
the officer in charge of that platoon (the platoon leader)
to identify the requirement, set a date to have all
the soldiers attend a rifle range, reserve a space at
a range, determine how much ammunition to obtain, determine
what transportation is necessary, etc. It will be the
job of the head NCO of the platoon (the platoon sergeant)
to execute this plan, by ensuring that everyone boards
the bus on time, rifle in hand, and by ensuring safety
on the range. As NCOs and officers progress through
the ranks, they become responsible for larger and larger-scale
operations.
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