• Dagnet@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Expecting people to know this is so weird (criticising op not you). Thanks for explanation

        • pleasejustdie@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Sorry, my wife’s family had strong military background and mine as well and a lot of my friends were prior service as well across different branches (Marines, Army, Chair Force), I forget sometimes that not everyone knows these things or can’t pick it out from context.

        • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 months ago

          Maybe… but there are a number of clues and titles that can clarify a search. They mentioned e6 as a Sergeant, e8 as a master sergeant,and e7 as a guard commander. I couldn’t find the matching last one, but just searching those together brought me up Army ranks that matched. He also stated that E6 was under E7, and that E8 was above that, so that conveys without much further definition a chain of command and ranks, even if you don’t know exactly what ranks they are.

          • pleasejustdie@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Guard Commander isn’t a rank, its a position. E7 is Sergeant First Class, and the Guard Commander position had to be filled by an E6 or higher and they ran the RCF (Regional Correctional Facility, aka prison) I was a guard at. The Guard Commander position would be roughly equivalent with a Warden, but in military prison the Guard Commander would be the senior NCO (Non-Commisioned Officer, generally E5+, with Corporal being the exception as its an NCO but E4 in grade, so you can be an E4 Specialist that isn’t an NCO, or an E4 Corporal that is an NCO, but it was vastly more common that anyone passing PLDC (Primary Leadership Development Course, the “school” you have to go to in order to become an NCO) would be promoted to E5 Sergeant at the same time in charge of the prison during that shift, so it was like having a rotating roster of Wardens made from a handful of senior NCOs.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I knew it, but that’s because I read a lot of random Wikipedia. 🤷

    • pleasejustdie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Enlisted ranks in the Army (and I think most other US branches of the military too) are graded E1 through E9, E1 being Private, where you start, no authority, can’t wipe their own ass without help, generally just completing basic training and AIT is enough to get you promoted to E2, Private 2nd Class, then about 6 months later you get promoted to E3, Private First Class or PFC. E4 is Specialist, the highest rank before ranks become NCOs or (Non-Commissioned Officers), E5 is Sergeant (SGT), E6 is Staff Sergeant (SSG), E7 is Sergeant First Class (SFC), E8 is Master Sergeant (MSG) or First Sergeant (1SG), and E9 is Sergeant Major (SGM) or Command Sergeant Major (CSM).

      Generally (there are always exceptions to the rule) SGT are team leaders in charge of 2-4 E1-E4s, SSG’s are squad leaders in charge of 3-4 E5’s, SFC are are Platoon Sergeants in charge of 3-4 E6’s

      However working in a jail we also had positions that granted us different authority. For example, in the jail when I was working the Control Booth, even as an E4, I had authority to force even E9s to wait if I needed to for the safe operation of the jail. (Granted this would never happen, as anyone that high up in rank would have the whole facility partially locked down so there would be no inmate movement while they were there, so there would literally never be an instance where someone like that would have to wait, but if circumstances resulted in someone like that maybe showing up unannounced or what not, its very possible they would have to wait behind a door while an area of the facility had inmate movement since my position in the Control Booth and the requirements of a jail gave me specific requirements that even an E9 or General couldn’t overrule).

      A friend of mine got written up by an E6 Chef from the prison kitchen, that he made wait 2 minutes because of a large movement of inmates so by procedure he could not open the gate the E6 was behind. Our Platoon Sergeant (E7/SFC) got that write up, made a jerking off motion, tore it up and threw it away.