Rank
The most controversial and problematic thing in re-enacting ever! However, this page is not about what rank you can have; this is about what the ranks mean, why each rank exists, who holds them and why. I was lucky enough to be told about a video that explained the Warrant Officers ranks and it was so well put together and informative that I had to share it with you all here. Enjoy.
Hopefully you've now watched the video and have taken on the duties of not only your rank, but of those ranks immediately above and below you.
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I have been asked many times over the years why 1st Lieutenants have silver bars, yet the lower grade of a 2nd Lieutenants have gold (same for Majors and Lieutenant Colonels)... well everyone knows gold is better, so why does the junior rank get gold?
Now the first video touched upon the specialist or technical grades, however this next video explains how and why they came about. The introduction starts in the modern U.S. army so just bear with it; it is the correct video.
Taking the 501st, 502nd and 506th Pathfinders as an example of how many different ranks you might get in a large bunch of men (it's the only list I can think of right now that applied to Normandy). The list is as follows:
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PVT - 70 PFC - 43
T/5 - 11 CPL - 8
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SGT - 6 T/4 - 1
S/Sgt - 1 WO - 1
I have ignored the officer ranks on purpose as the above applies to 9 sticks (roughly 140 men), each with two distinct specialized groups lead by separate officer/teams. However, the enlisted ranks are a good indication of a random selection of men and what ratio of ranks you'd expect to see (rounded down):
- Every other man is a PVT!
- 1 in every 4 is a PFC
- 1 in every 13 is T/5
- 1 in every 17 is CPL
- 1 in every 23 is SGT
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Others are 1 in every 141+ men T/4, S/Sgt & WO - Although keeping to that sort of scale isn't really practical, it does give us something to work with and toward. This, however, doesn't take into account the structure of standard rifle squad or the leadership variations in the Pathfinder units as compared to all other units. Also, this doesn't count the officer that would have been leading these men. Usually, it would have been squad leaders at the S/Sgt rank.
