Posted on 06/29/2024 10:03:58 AM PDT by Jonty30
I'm just wondering. This question came up in Quora. I could only answer from a British tradition, where if you have officers of equal rank then the eldest officer is given command. Presumably the same is if there are only privates left, the eldest private would take command until a senior can be found to take command.
However, I don't what happens in American tradition. If you have officers of equal rank, who gets command or if the lowest ranks soldiers find themselves without a senior officer, what is the American military procedure to deciding who gets command until a senior officer can be found to take command?
According to the current American military tradition, the one with the most DEI points would be immediately promoted.
It’s piggy move-up...next highest rank gets it.
Date of rank determines the sonority in the American military, between equals.
Unless one of them misspells a word.
I can understand that, if there is somebody who can move into a temporary senior command position. But what in the case of where everybody left is a private?
In the British military, when there is more than one person who is equally ranked, then they go by birthdate.
I’m just wondering about the American military, what steps do they go through to determine who is the senior officer if everybody is at the same rank?
Thank you.
That helps.
Probably date of rank. Lots of “field promotions” in WW2 when no officers left someone is given an on the spot promotion to commissioned status. Often it boils down to every man for himself if it gets bad enough.h
Ansel12 said the date of enlistment would be the determining factor between whom gets senior command in the even that anybody senior is killed or incapacitated.
It’s not “eldest”, but the most senior in terms of time in that rank. If date of rank is equal, the. It goes by overall time in service.
Thank you.
I appreciate the clarification.
In the military this isn’t a big deal, people know the rules and it only takes seconds to sort it out.
I’m sure that is true. I’m not military and the person who asked the question obviously wasn’t military.
I thought it was an interesting question.
I know that unofficial rules also play a role. Are you going to trust to command you a fresh from the academy lieutenant or you going to trust the hard-nosed sergeant with your life and the chips are down?
“”””””””Ansel12 said the date of enlistment would be the determining factor between whom gets senior command in the even that anybody senior is killed or incapacitated.””””””””
No, No, No, No, I said the “date of rank”.
Two Captains have the issue, well one Captain has been in the military for 6 years but made Captain on January 1, 2024 and the other has 10 years in service but made Captain in February of 2024.
The man who has been Captain for the longest is the ranking Captain, that would be the first one promoted in January.
I know this personally as I was involved in a 3 way fight over who was NOT going to be in charge of a flight line.
A two star general informed me I had lost and was now an air terminal manager.
I was unqualified, uneducated, and unwilling to do it.
The 2 other guys were older and had been in the US Air Force longer than me.
But I had time in grade.
We were all just Staff Sgts., there should have been at least a Captain in charge.
As the eldest/longest serving corporal, my son was put in charge of motor-T when both sergeants were retired/deployed. It lasted about six months. He was awarded a medal at the end for his superior performance. The citation was amazing.
Do you really think everything is so casual in the military that rank isn’t rigid?
Thank you. I don’t mind being corrected, because I’m wanting a proper understanding.
I thought maybe with no upper command, the troops could just flip a coin & go home. I had been in a situation in the military where ranking commanders were available, but the better choice may have been just to flip a coin & then head home.
No. That’s why I asked the question that, if there was nobody with a rank to command because the soldiers were all the same rank, what the procedure was to determine from those soldiers who would get temporary command.
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