Lingo

I had the chance to talk to my sister's boyfriend again and he let me in on more information. It is really interesting. I am still confused about some of the language used, but I am getting better. This is mainly what we talked about when I saw him. It is a lot of information at first, but obvioulsy I was able to sit and take notes.
Most soldiers arrive as a Private, which holds a pay grade of E-1, although it is possible to join the army anywhere from Private (E-1) to Specialist (E-4) depending on the service member’s level of education or prior military service. Age plays no part in the rank structure. When a soldier reports to a duty station, they are evaluated from day one on different aspects of the army. Some things that are valued the most are military bearing, discipline, respect, loyalty, physical training, and the potential for increased responsibility. Once a soldier achieves the rank of Specialist (E-4) they begin to be evaluated on a different level, because the next step is to become a Non-commissioned officer. Non-commissioned officers consist of sergeant, staff sergeant, sergeant first-class, master sergeant/First sergeant, and sergeant major/command sergeant major. Sergeants are skill level 2 and usually have three soldiers they are responsible for. Staff Sergeants are skill level 3 and generally have two sergeants that work for them and three lower enlisted soldiers that work for each sergeant. The rank structure continues like that always increasing in soldiers and responsibility. The lowest level of Command Sergeant Major (E-9) has approximately 900 soldiers they are responsible for. A sergeant has two basin responsibilities, accomplish of their mission, and the welfare of their soldiers. A sergeant coaches, teaches and mentors each individual soldier to become better at their job, and more importantly to become a more developed adult.

Round 2

I had the chance to talk to my sister's boyfriend and he provided me a lot of information. Summarizing what he basically said was this:
A soldier’s career starts with a simple decision of serving his or her country. Once a person shows interest in joining the Army, they would then need to see a recruiter. It is the recruiter’s job to evaluate the person’s ability to serve in the army and initiate entry into the service. The process of enlisting in the Army takes anywhere from three to eight weeks. The process can go very quickly if all of the paper work is completed properly and the person has no prior criminal record or physical restrictions. A person undergoes various different tests to determine whether they are physically and mental prepared for service. Once all tests are complete and the person is approved to join the Army they are then sent to a career counselor. The career counselors job is to fit each individual with a job that fits there abilities and the army’s needs at that time. After Choosing a job a contract is worked out that outlines the service member’s length of service. The minimum requirement to join the army is three years. After signing the contract, the service member is sworn in and sent to Basic Training. At basic training, service members are required to meet a number of training requirements that all soldiers must complete. Once basic training is completed each soldier is broken down into there specific job and sent to Advanced Individual Training (AIT). There they train exclusively on their military occupational skill, otherwise known as MOS. Once they complete all training requirements that prepare them to do their job at a skill level one.
He had to go to work at this point, but I will talk to him soon and get the rest of the information. I like getting information in first person, especially talking on the phone because I can ask as many questions as I want and he can repeat things for me to understand. Knowing that he has experience in this field also makes me confident in what he has to say.

First look

I looked on the Internet and searched for military rankings. After looking at a few websites, I found one that introduced what military rankings were. If you take a look at http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/insignias/index.html this will take you to the main "home" page to get you a brief introduction of what they believe military rankings are. There are so many things that come into a ranking. I learned about how the rankings are different than the classes (such as class E9-E13 or W-2 and O-5). The E stands for enlisted while they number stands for the pay grade. E-1 through E-3 are all some sort of privates. I am still looking at what each name means and stands for. My next source will probably be my sister's boyfriend, because he is in the Army and I believe he is a Sergeant. I will post another in a few days!

Introduction

I am a college student looking into military/army rankings. I am not big into history or politics or even the war "stuff" on television, but I have always been interested in what the lingo is. My sister has had 3 boyfriends that have been involved in some branch of the military and she has caught onto what the language means. I have tried to understand, but I either don't have the patience or I just get frustrated because I get confused. I will be looking on the Internet, books, magazines, news and asking individuals questions about rankings and just army in general. Classmates or outsiders can respond, comment, suggest or question on my blog page. I want to know more about this topic just because I am not real familiar with everything involved and how things work and so on.