Wait - Why Does the Chief answer to the Servant in the Army?

[David Flin]

@AndyC presents his musings here on how Army rank names develop.

Discuss this Here.

 

[Warthog]

This is lovely @AndyC

An Air Marshall is therefore presumably the guy who cleans the mews?

I looked up Commandant, Commodore etc and they all just mean "guy who gives orders", which is OK I guess and reminded me that the Pterry-Dwarvish for "king" is actually Chief Mining Engineer, as well it should be.

 

[AndyC]

This is lovely @AndyC

An Air Marshall is therefore presumably the guy who cleans the mews?

I looked up Commandant, Commodore etc and they all just mean "guy who gives orders", which is OK I guess and reminded me that the Pterry-Dwarvish for "king" is actually Chief Mining Engineer, as well it should be.

Exactly.

In the Navy, of course, you have Sailor [Seaman], Competent Sailor [Able Seaman], and up through the Little Appointment Holder ranks [Petty Officers].

Then as a full Appointment Holder, you become a Sailor-who-works-in-the-middle-of-the-ship to start with.
Of course.

Placeholder next. Then Placeholder-for-the-guy-who-gives-orders, which does make you wonder who the placeholder below is supposed to be holding place for.

Guy who gives orders is next, logically below the Boss.

He's below the Other-guy-who-gives-orders, who then is subordinate to the Boss-of-bosses ranks. The latter actually making more sense than the Armies Common People and the RAF's Aerial Stableboys.

You get the Boss-of-bosses-for-the-back-bit first, then the Subordinate-boss-of-bosses, then a full on Boss-of-bosses and Boss-of-bosses-for-All-Floaters. Which sounds a bit yukky, I guess.

Meanwhile, in the RAF, I graduated Cranwell as a Flying Appointment Holder who didn't fly.
I became an Aerial Section Placeholder on promotion, before finishing my career as Person-who-leads-a-square.

I might have stayed in to try for promotion to Lifting Fin Order Giver and then Crowd Boss.

Before gunning for the ranks of Air guy who gives orders and then Subordinate Aerial Stableboy. Then simply Aerial Stableboy, before Chief Aerial Stableboy, which is then subordinate to the Stableboy for the whole Royal Air Force, who is probably a bit overworked.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Boss, Big Shot, Gang Bigshot, and Boss-of-Bosses make me imagine the mobsters from Piece of the Action have committed forces to the Dominion War.

 

[Thande]

I did a similar article to this a while back, but obviously Andy having served himself adds something to it (and he's looking at it from a different angle).

 

[Coiler]

And of course there's the Grand Column Guy.