I saw a MASH episode where a Major, in supply, would not relent to Hawkeye’s begging for quick release of medical supplies. The Major proceeded to tell Hawkeye to take it up with his boss…a sergeant!?
Can a Sergeant be a boss over a Major??? If so, then a Major would have to take orders from a Sergeant??? How can this work?
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
A sergeant doesn’t command a major. However, (1) a senior sergeant who’s been around for 20 years (Sgt. Bilko?) may well know things that a young major doesn’t so that a smart young major who knows what’s good for him may be strongly influenced by the sergeant’s advice, and (2) the sergeant can tell a major what to do when the sergeant is acting with the authority of the major’s commanding officer. (An example of enlisted personnel directing officers is the flight deck on an aircraft carrier.)
I don’t recall the episode, but here’s a WAG:
During war/police actions, those drafted with college degrees were given officer’s commisions. But sargeants (E-5 on up) were and are usually long-timers. Even though technically the major can give the sargeant orders, there’d be some resentment if they got too uppity about giving orders.
So basically, the sargeant was boss because he’d been doing his job for years. The major was just some CPA that got an officer’s commision.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
What they said.
I remember wandering into a AASF (Army Aviation Support Facility) for the Iowa National Guard and being amazed that the guy who swung the most weight was a buck sergeant (E-5). Even the LTC commanding the facility listened with respect to this E-5, and although the sergeant called the colonel ‘sir,’ it was obvious who was running the show. This E-5 was older, and had been the shop foreman for many years. But because there are only a limited number of slots in the Guard, he had no promotion options. He had enough years to retire at his active-duty rank, but he liked the job and the responsibility, so he stayed on as an AGR (Active Guard/Reserve) E-5.
MAS*H was not usually the best source of information on military protocol, by the way – but in this case, there’s some truth to the situation!
And don’t forget about situational authority…for example, if I (as an E-5) was teaching a class about something, then while I am instructing that class, I am in charge…regardless of the ranks of my students. This doesn’t mean that I can make an O-4 do push ups, but that I can have enough authority to control my classroom
Additionally, MASH’s goal always was to portray the absurdities of the military, esp in the early years. They did get a lot less cynical towards the end
For those who are curious, this was one of the earlier MASH episode where Hawkeye “orders out” for BBQ spareribs from Chicago. The package is marked “medical supplies” and gets delayed in Weejongboo (sp?) by an unrelenting supply officer (a Major) of whom Hawkeye asks to speak to his superior, a sergeant. This really surprised me.
One person suggests this is possible on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. I am not familiar with this analogy, but I wonder if perhaps it is based on safety? For example, there was a MASH episode where Hawkeye orders an inferior to put out a cigarette while near the ether. But, if this were a superior officer, could Hawkeye still give such an order for everyone’s sake???
“They’re coming to take me away ha-ha, ho-ho, hee-hee, to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time… :)” - Napoleon IV
Few things for y’all to ponder:
There are two types of authority in the military: (1) General military, and (2) Positional (incorrectly labeled above as situational but otherwise accurately described). General military authority goes with the rank structure and positional authority goes with the duty assignment; thus, an Ensign can not order a Petty Officer to do something which violates the positional authority of the Petty Officer, such as telling the PO to falsify a muster report in the Ensign’s favour.
The Ensign can, however, correct any Petty Officer for a uniform discrepancy (such as not wearing the Unit Identification Marker or some such other triviality). That falls under “general military authority.”
The correct spelling, in English, of the town in question is: Ouijongbu.
Yah Mon, what Monty said. You know, operating under that kind of General Military Authority does in a way extend to civillian life. I drive an ambulance. I’m not even a state-certified EMT. However, I am responsible for the care and transport of those in my rig during calls. As such, I have on more than one occasion called the State Troopers to report someone tailgating me, or cutting me off ( recently this involved going around my rig INTO ONCOMING traffic !).
While I have no police authority at all, I’m duty bound to insure that my passengers are not threatened in any way. There are also DOT and DOH laws governing yielding to Emergency Vehicles.
So, now and then, I get to make the cops do what I want.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
A subordinate in the military is obligated to follow lawful orders. He is obligated to disobey unlawful orders and report them to his commanding officer. At least, that’s the way it worked twenty years ago when I served.
I saw that episode of MAS*H. The sergeant seemed to be a particularly worldly-wise, aggressive man; as Hawkeye called it, the Major (the actor cast for this part looked appropriately wimpy) was “a tower of Jello.” In other words, although a major is supposed to outrank a sergeant, in this case the power behind the throne–so to speak–was the heads-up, aggressive sergeant; one wonders how that Major got his commission in the first place.
I generally agree with everything mentioned above, but would like to highlight one particular source of power within the Army circa Korean War.
The good-ole-boys network was the inviolable bastion of NCOs. The unwritten rule was if you got something you need, don’t ask questions about where it came from. You didn’t want to know. Thank the NCO who procured it, buy him a beer, overlook some “minor” infraction, but don’t ask how he got it. It worked very well when push came to shove, and too many officers owed it too many favors for there to be any real question about who really ran things in a supply outfit.
Things have changed in this regard. Somewhat.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Your tax dollars at work. 
One wonders what kind of snake-oil selling technique was used to gull the American taxpayers into going along with this. If someone had blown the whistle, quite a few members of the Armed Services Committee might wind up living in cardboard boxes.
What makes you think this is a bad thing?
Often, these ad-hoc ‘networks’ have hte function of adding a bit of flexibility to an otherwise rigid control system. The army allows this stuff because it makes the overall system more efficient. Somewhat like a black market in a controlled economy. Just don’t let it get out of hand so that the heirarchy doesn’t collapse.
The good-ole-boy network as practiced in the 50s really is defunct, dougie_monty.
One reason is that homesteading (staying in one spot for 15 years or so in a 20 year career) is much less doable than back then (when it was usually done as finding some special supplies for the personnel guy who deleted you from orders transferring you to a not-so-cushy spot).
Sam, the good-ole-boy system excluded blacks, Hispanics, women, Asians, or anybody else who didn’t fit the stereotype. Supplies that were needed for one mission might be withheld if the supply sergeant thought they might be more “useful” in the future to someone else. It allowed black market siphoning of needed materiel to flourish.
As practiced today, the supply network within the military is still really run by the NCOs. But the NCOs have become more professional, and while they can still pull off the occasional miracle, fewer miracles are needed because logistics is much more decentralized & has adopted many of the same procedures used in private industry.