I don’t know everything about US military ranks, but I did know that Staff Sergeant was a non-com rank.
At least for me, somebody who is a sergeant has a achieved the most respectable rank.
The non-coms earn their ranks more then the others.
Exactly correct. Those who write the headlines often mess them up by such mistakes. It used to be that there was an experienced editor that read such headlines and corrected them. In today’s media, the old hands that were any good have been long retired or are dead. The younger “journalists” are clueless.