re: How do commands work in the military

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I placed a Lieutenant Col under arrest while I was an E-3 and I wasn't an MP.

ETA: That same Colonel gave me a medal for arresting him.

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Definitely need a story on this one

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It's not suicide for a O-1 to give orders to a high ranking NCO, it happens all the time. A platoon sgt is usually an E-7 and can have 15yrs of experience. A platoon leader straight out of officer basic will still be giving him orders. The issue is ignoring the advice of the NCOs.

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It was a balancing act. An LT should be listening a lot immediately above, immediately below, and next to him early on in his tenure as a PL, but he should also be getting a sense of whose word to take seriously and whose probably should just get a nod of acknowledgement. Learning curve needs to be very steep - a good LT should be pretty confident about what he's doing and the orders he's giving 3 - 5 months in else you're gonna start getting rolled and second-guessed by everyone - your own CO, squad leaders, PSG, everyone. Probably the most important thing I learned was how to act on imperfect and incomplete information because there will be a lot of situations where no one knows 100% what is going on, including your best NCOs - just gotta learn to sound them off and roll with a decision.

Also, something I found was that a good RTO can make an LT's life 100X easier. I learned to make sure to have my smartest and most capable E-3's - the kind of guys who were sure fire passes on their first board or had aspirations to go to SFAS - in that spot.

I still say squad leader and company commander are the most difficult jobs in the military. Still have a lot of respect for people who do those jobs well.

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In the underwater navy an E4 that knows his shite outranks a junior officer.

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This is not true at all. An E-4 will offer guidance and advice to a JO since he is still green but the ultimate decision falls on the officer. He is the one that has to answer to department head if shite goes wrong. When a JO shows up they are given a chief that helps them with quals and leading his crew.

All you have to remember is "shite flows downhill" and you're good to go.

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was a major in charge of 9 lt cols

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How did that happen?

Underwater navy, E-6 and above are almost unilaterally in leadership positions. Lower ranks with the exception of a few E-5’s in section supervisor roles are not really ordering each other around. Even then, it’s purely situational. If the E-5 is qualified Chief of the Watch, he most certainly tell the AE and AOW what to do, while on watch. That ends the moment they hit the chow line.

But in general anyone below a chief won’t reach outside of their direct chain of command and make a direct order. You won’t see an E-4 ET making an E-2 Yeoman carry his bags down the stairs, or anything meaningless like that. Honestly, it’s only rarely that even high ranks ask for that type of service.

The exception to this is submarine qualified vs. not submarine qualified. Non-qualified (typically 12 months or less submarine experience) will occasionally be ordered mundane tasks by qualified types, regardless of relative rank.

I had the 8th Army G-2 SGM order me to buy him a bottle of liquor while on the hill in Itaewon while he was completely shitfaced. Thankfully I didn't work in the G-2 shop and he eventually passed out on a table outside a bar after me and a couple of others told him to go home.

Ahhhh Korea.

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the hill in Itaewon

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Done my time on Hooker Hill.

Unlawful order

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The RoK Army has automatic promotions to SGT and there is no SPC rank, only CPL. Since it takes 26 months to make E-4 in the Army and RoK Army soldiers could get promoted to CPL in about a year and a half, a CPL KATUSA could have authority over a SPC with a year or more experience. At least that's how it was treated when I was there in '00-'01.

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Nobody took KATUSA CPL's seriously when I was over there. Occasionally the KATUSA's would complain about it and the 1SG would remind us to treat them like NCO's. No one ever really did. They were good for duty rosters though.