As a 65yo who reports to younger people in all the places I work, it is a bit like being the CPO reporting to the ensign; a smart ensign knows to make use of the experience, a non-smart ensign is just another Son of Brazil to learn how to work around.
I concur with your assessment. I have managers who could be my kids and I deal with it in the same way.
My wife was in a couple of positions where she was new and in charge of quite a few employees at a hospital once and a university and quickly figured out who were her good workers and had good suggestions and wisdom to impart and those full of crap. Those full of crap were the worst or the worst for office politics and sticking their noses into everyone else’s business and causing problems. With help of the wise CPO’s or Sargent’s as you put it, pushed the office hacks into positions where they were a minor nuisance with little of no power or out right fired them for incompetence.