8 Below

I will agree with what everyone is saying about XO being a position, not a rank. DH is an XO in the Army at the company level. He is a captain. His Battalion XO is a major.
 
Tears of the Sun was the movie with Bruce Willis. He leads a group of Navy SEALS into Nigeria to rescue a doctor. I remember it being very violent and hard to stomache, but overall a good movie.

DH is an XO in the Army

Terri...God Bless you both, and Thank You for your service to our country.
 
Edited to add more...but I don't know what else to say except ... again, Thank You

I misspoke, referring to XO as a rank.
 
CPO and Master CPO are non-com ranks in the Navy. I know that for a fact. My first step-father was Gerald French, Boiler Tech 2c aboard the USS Ogden. He was staying in at the hopes of making CPO, Chief Petty Officer.
 
 
Point being, I've been around the military most of my life because of family and friends. I was advised of being medically disqualified, so I couldn't serve. And yet, inaccuracies happen from me on something I know about. So, I would consider some inaccuracies in a movie to be piddlin'.

"Tears of the Sun" with Bruce Willis, a SEAL team is sent in to extract an american doctor from Nigeria at the onset of yet another civil war. Mission time: 45 minutes. The team goes in and locates the doctor and advise her that they are there to get her out. She can't leave without all of those people. Then, the rest of the movie is the struggle to hike out of there to "safety." In real life, when the doctor said I can't leave without these people, the team leader would have said fine, shot her with a tranq dart and carried her out of there. Meeting at the lz for extraction by the end of mission time. Accomplish the objective regardless of obstacles. Of course, without that flaw, you wouldn't have a movie. And that movie had a former SEAL for a tech advisor on tactics, etc, for the actors.
 
It was a popular movie in spite of some inaccuracies. 

ORIGINAL: ron2

I was talking about the Navy, not the army. You stand at attention for Captain on deck and XO on deck. I'm not sure why you thought I was implying an XO in the army.

 
I didn't.  I was responding to this comment...
 
>>Next rank down is XO, executive officer.<<
 
...because I believe it to be factually wrong.  As I said, XO is NOT a rank, as I thought you were saying.  XO, CO, ADC, are positions, not ranks.  Sorry if I misunderstood.
 
 

E9=Master Chief/Command Master Chief.

One more correction to Navy rank.  An E9 in the Navy is a Master Chief Petty Officer.  Command Master Chief is a position, like XO and CO, not a rank.  An MCPO can be a CMC, but he can have regular duties as well.  Within a command there can be 5 or 10 Master Chiefs, but there is only 1 Command Master Chief and even though they are all E9s, the CMC has more responsibilities, etc. 

I was in the Navy and was married to a career military man.  He was a Master Chief when I met him, took a position as Command Master Chief of a ship, then an air squadron, and finally, before he retired, he was CMC of an entire airwing.  The CMCs of the squadrons were under the command of the airwing CMC, just as the XOs and COs were under the command of the airwing XO and CO.  Only when the airwing moved aboard the aircraft carrier for deployment did the airwing CMC have a true equal - and that was the CMC of the carrier itself.  Same with the airwing XO and CO - their equals were the XO & CO of the carrier.

The only non-com personnel who outranks all CPOs, SCPOs, MCPOs (including those holding the CMC position) is the MCPON - the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.

What's so confusing about all that? [sm=rolleyes.gif] (read with sarcasm)

ORIGINAL: lokis_mom

I will agree with what everyone is saying about XO being a position, not a rank. DH is an XO in the Army at the company level. He is a captain. His Battalion XO is a major.

 
I am not sure how we went from reviewing a movie to discussing military rank structure but apparently I am not the only one who finds it interesting.  []
 
It has been 27 years since I got out of the Army.  Damn I am old.  At that time, a CPT (O-3) would have probably been a company commander.  Is your hubbie's CO also a captain?  A batallion XO would have been a major then too.  I assume your DH is minutes away from getting his own command?

ORIGINAL: sharismom

E9=Master Chief/Command Master Chief.

One more correction to Navy rank.  An E9 in the Navy is a Master Chief Petty Officer.  Command Master Chief is a position, like XO and CO, not a rank. 

 
Then that is different than the Army.  In the Army, an E-9 would be either a sergeant major (SM) or command sergeant major (CSM).  Although they both have the pay grade of E-9, a CSM would out rank the SM.  They also have slightly different rank insignia.  There is also a CSM of the Army, who out ranks all other CSM's.  You may recall the CSM of the Army got in a bit of trouble a couple of years back for, well, inappropriate behavior with subordinate women.  []
 
At the E-8 pay grade, you have a First Sergeant, who outranks the Master Sergeant.  I think the Army has done away with most or all of their specialst ranks of E-5 and above, but in my day, similar pay grade / rank differences existed there too.  For example, at the E-5 pay grade, you would have a Specialist 5th class who would be outranked by a sergeant.  The Army does still have the SP4 (E-4) rank, but I think they have done away with SP5 through SP7.
 
To further confuse the situation, you have people, like I was, who wear a different rank insignia than their pay grade.  These are affectionately called "acting jacks."  In my case, because the position I filled required a sergeant, I wore sergeant (E-5) stripes, but my actual rank was SP4 (E-4).  General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, during WW2, wore the rank insignia of General of the Army (O-11), a 5 star general, but his actual pay grade, if I recall, was O-6 (Colonel).

You may recall the CSM of the Army got in a bit of trouble a couple of years back for, well, inappropriate behavior with subordinate women.  []

 
That never, ever happened in the Navy when I was in. [sm=devil.gif]
 
Actually, for the record, my husband wasn't ever in my chain of command when we started dating.  He was "just" a master chief and I was a 3rd class petty officer.  In the mid-80s, when I was in, as long as such was not the case, people didn't get so ruffled about it because we were both enlisted personnel.  Had one of us been an officer, that would have caused problems. 
 

I am not sure how we went from reviewing a movie to discussing military rank structure

 
Probably because it's sort of a dog pack thing...alphas, commanding officers, etc.

ORIGINAL: sharismom

That never, ever happened in the Navy when I was in. [sm=devil.gif]
 

 
Of course not.  Inappropriate sexual behavior, as everyone knows, ONLY happens in the Army.  []
 

Actually, for the record, my husband wasn't ever in my chain of command when we started dating.

 
But he did outrank you, right?  That is the natural order of things.  It is God's way.  So, tell me, did he ever order you to...[]
 

Had one of us been an officer, that would have caused problems. 

 
Indeed, it would have.  When I was in the Army, a very good friend, who was an  E-4 was dating a 1LT.  They even ended up getting married and were both still in the Army at the time.  No one, but their very closest friends knew anything about it.

 

At work today, I talked to a plumber who had been in the Navy. I couldn't wait to brag how I screwed up by referring to XO as a rank. I can always laugh at myself because I should have known better, having grown up and been around people in the military. For goodness sake, I had a military id when I was 10 because of my 1st stepfather. It allowed me to go aboard ship to the Captain's Quarters to see him re-up for another 6 years.
 
According to my friend who was a SEAL in Viet Nam, and perhaps this has changed, but back then, the head instructor or leader of bud/S was almost always an MCPO. So, it it was also believable to enter bud/S as an officer and be directed by a lower ranking person. I knew of a SEAL who decided to join AFSOC, which is special forces in the Air Force and he had to go through all the training like anyone else, regardless of his record. Some people never get enough of having their butt kicked.
 
I think the topic strayed this far because we started talking about technical inaccuracies in movies, such as some poetic license in "8 Below" and I led the way with rank, etc. So, it's my fault.
 

ORIGINAL: probe1957

 Is your hubbie's CO also a captain?  A batallion XO would have been a major then too.  I assume your DH is minutes away from getting his own command?

 
DH just got promoted to captain, so he spent most of his XO time as a lieutenant. His CO is a captain and he will get command in the next 2-3 years most likely. Wow, I'm catching on to this Army stuff! []

Did you read my other post where I admitted I was wrong? I apologize for the technical error. Speaking of...
 
Aside from some inaccuracies and some poetic license in telling a story based on an historical event from the 1950's, did you find any redeeming value in "8 Below." I originally started this thread to inform others who liked the movie that it was available. Then, it became a critique, with various questions of technical accuracy, which led me to movies that us incorrect rank or procedure which of course led to various current discussions, my inaccuracies aside.
 

I have not seen 8 Below.  I can neither confirm nor deny its accuracies!
 

But he did outrank you, right?  That is the natural order of things.  It is God's way. 

 
Yes, Billy, he did outrank me.  Technically, in the Navy, all enlisted personnel have rate.  Officers are ranked.  So I guess you could say he outrated me.
 

So, tell me, did he ever order you to...[]

 
I'll never tell...[sm=lame.gif]
 

ORIGINAL: ron2

Did you read my other post where I admitted I was wrong? I apologize for the technical error.

 
I did, but not until after I had posted.  []
 
And speaking of people liking to get their butt kicked, when I was in jump school, a common punishment was push ups.  The command to do push ups was, "Get down."  If you were an officer, the command was, "Get down, sir."  I think that has changed now too.  Jump instructors, I think, treat everyone, officers and lowly enlisted swine, like crap.
 
I was reading a magazine article the other month that said something like 80% of officers in the Army are jump qualified.  I am certain the percentage was nowhere near that high when I was in.  Being jump qualified must be critically important to an officer's career now.

Today, we are going to teach you how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. You will notice that we are 10,000 feet off of the ground ...

Just waiting for the first-time jumper to lose his cookies.
Yeehaw!