Keeping or Changing Rank in T2K

[Raellus]

Let's say a captain in the Air Force finds himself grounded and out of his element, c. 2000. With very few (if any) replacement planes available, there's little to no chance of this officer serving in his previous capacity. The army/marines needs riflemen. So, the captain is "transfered" to the infantry. What would his effective rank be?

This officer probably has very little experience in ground combat and/or leading an infantry company or platoon so it wouldn't be likely his AF rank would garner him the same responsibilities in the army. Would he still be called "Captain"? Would he have to start at the bottom of the rank totem pole? I can't imagine someone who'd worked his way up the ladder for years (and/or gone to one of the academies/officer schools) dealing very well with being addressed as "private" or "spicialist" or whatever. I know that certain ranks with the same name (for example lieutenant in the army and lieutenant in the navy) aren't really equivalent. Would he pick up the army equivalent of the rank he'd held in the AF?

I just wonder how this would be handled. I imagine it would be quite common for AF, army pilots, and navy personel to find themselves stuck in a rifle company and I'm trying to figure out how to handle it.

[kato13]

Warrant Officers? Above all enlisted but below all officers in the chain of command would seem appropriate.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by kato13

Warrant Officers? Above all enlisted but below all officers in the chain of command would seem appropriate.

Good call. But what about their responsibilities in the field, though? Would a former navy Lt.. commander, now army warrant officer, be given command of an infantry platoon when pretty much all of the platoon's NCOs would have way more applicable experience and could run it a whole lot better. Know what I mean?

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Good call. But what about their responsibilities in the field, though? Would a former navy Lt.. commander, now army warrant officer, be given command of an infantry platoon when pretty much all of the platoon's NCOs would have way more applicable experience and could run it a whole lot better. Know what I mean?

I would hope that they would defer to their NCO's opinions but the "Officer trumps enlisted" rule, while illogical at times, is what the army is based on. As a kid I could never understand how a fresh lieutenant was superior to a 30 year NCO, but that is the system. I would also hope that direct commission and administrative officers would consider themselves at a lower rank during combat and defer to lower ranking officers from combat branches, but in the end it will depend on the personality of the officer as to whether or not they would do so.

[Ramjam]

As Kato posted, you would hope the unexperienced officer would let the experienced NCO run the show and learn from it.

And if that failed in the world of TW2K a bad officer would be very deaded to friendly fire in no time.

But I do remember the Air force officer in 'Red Storm Rising' who was a weather man leading a squad of USMCs in Iceland after the Russians had taken the island.

He had the rank and the Marines followed his orders but he deffered to the Sgt's experience when needed.

[Adm.Lee]

The zoomie in "Red Storm Rising" seemed a textbook example of what to do as a butter-bar (2nd Lt.)-- lead, inspire, do what the sergeant said.

As for a more experienced officer from the AF or Navy joining the infantry-- one would hope that he/she would get some basic (re)training, and/or be posted to a staff position. Since most of T2k seems to have a lot of rank inflation (lots of NCOs, not many privates left), I think rank is less important than experience and training in a lot of units.

In the one PbP I've tried to play recently, I had a Navy officer PC who had lots of experience (33 months in 1st ed.), but rolled low on rank, so ended up a 1st Lt. I figured he spent a lot of time in the peacetime Navy, then some in the wartime Navy, and transferred to the Army in '99 for some re-training. I figured some personality clashes with his Navy chain of command led to his not being promoted faster, and urged him to give the Army a try.

Winter cantonment seems like a logical time for lots of grounded zoomies and squids to be trained as infantry, IMO. There's even a more modern name for it. I read in the last few years of the "Blue to Green" program, in which the US Department of Defense was offering financial incentives to Air Force and Navy personnel to transfer to the Army, as those two services were losing numbers, in favor of an increase in the Army's strength.

So, to answer the original question, I would say the former pilot is paid () as a Captain, but considered as a brand-new lieutenant, at least for a while. Were I his Battalion CO, I would make him a staffer, or at most the XO of a company. He's probably been a leader of at least a flight, and had lots of admin tasks already, so I would use him for that stuff. I wouldn't move him on to a platoon without training (probably run by Division?) as an infantry officer. Once he's shown some stuff, then move him on to a platoon before a company. This could easily mean he's going to be taking orders from a junior lieutenant or even an NCO company commander. If he can handle that, then he'll be OK with me.