Good Morning, Vietnam has been running a lot on cable this month and I watched it again for the first time in a decade or so. Anyway, my question is: a lieutenant is a commissioned officer and sergeant major is an enlisted rank, as the movie explicitly points out (“Do you see anything on this uniform that would indicate an officer?!”), so why does it seem like Sergeant Major Dickerson is a higher rank than Lieutenant Hauk (i.e. General Taylor dismisses Hauk to speak directly with Dickerson, or Hauk appears to be the direct supervisor of the radio staff while Dickerson sits in his office, among other things)?
Lieutenant’s are often wet behind the ears, just having been sent from Officer Training School. Sgt Majors are career army and know how things are run. Most smart Lieutenants would be wise to listen to their Sgt Majors if they know what’s good for them.
Technically, a Sergeant Major’s title is a noncommissioned officer, not enlisted. About as Senior NCO as one can get, at that.
Sir Rhosis
Right:smack:. Thanks for the correction.
Dickerson had most likely been in the Army for decades - it takes a while to move up to that Sgt Major. Plus, he was apparently in some serious combat role before he contracted a social disease and got moved to radio. And General Taylor liked Dickerson a lot too. Whereas Lt. Hauk hasn’t been in the Army long at all, and can’t even get privates to listen to him - “You know, I hate it that you men don’t salute me. That’s what being an officer is all about.”
Also notice that Dickerson, while he clearly held Hauk in contempt, was very careful to observe all the forms of respect - he saluted him, always referred to him as “Sir”, or “Lieutenant”, even though it was obvious he would disregard or sidestep any order he got from Hauk that he disagreed with.
Now that the question has been answered, let’s all pour one out for JT Walsh (Dickerson) and Bruno Kirby (Hauk). RIP fellas.
Nobody fucks with a Sargeant Major, particularly in the USMC. Any officer worth his salt will defer to his judgement on any personnel or tactical issue, unless the guy is a total fuck-up, which is completely unlikely in my experience.
Dickerson might not take Hauk seriously, but – unlike the rest of the team – he never fails to show him the forms of respect an enlisted man owes an officer. That’s law-of-nature to a career NCO.
One thing I did wonder about is why Hauk complains about not getting salutes. They all work mostly indoors – and soldiers do not salute indoors, do they?
The Navy doesn’t. The Army salutes indoors if reporting to a superior. The Army and Air Force salute both when wearing a hat (covered) and uncovered. The Navy and Marines only salute when covered.
The Air Force does not salute indoors except in very strict reporting situations, and then the subordinate would be uncovered (unless they were armed, in which case they would be covered and not salute). If outdoors, they would be covered, except in certain duty situations and would then salute. so generally, the Air Force does not salute uncovered.
And most soldiers normally wouldn’t “report”, in the manner requiring a salute, every single day. Hauk would sound like he’s complaining that not every single EM just drops absolutely whatever he’s doing, comes to attention and snaps a salute if he even comes near.
ISTM the implication is that the draftee grunts who had spent some time in-country, but who were not true pros like Dickerson, assumed a looser “in-country style” and did not care much for military propriety. Dickerson OTOH worked around the pointy-haired-boss Lt, while maintaining the proper forms of order and discipline.
It is not uncommon when out in a field operating environment for the salute ritual to be set aside (so as not to point out to observers/snipers who’s the valuable target). Though the movie being set in Saigon in the 60s almost everyone we see is either in-garrison or on the open street, and the daily-use uniforms bore conspicuously visible insignia, so normally it would be fair play for salutes, it is also not at unknown in the Army to, for practical reasons, designate certain operational areas or circumstances as provisionally salute-free, or some workspaces as not requiring you to call attention every single time an officer walks in the room, even in-garrison.
I remember when I was a brand new helicopter pilot reporting for my first duty assignment after flight school, about a year after OCS, basically a brand new dumb as dirt 2LT. Somewhere in the course of the day I was with a crew chief, 15 years SSgt who really knew his stuff in more ways than one. Anyhow, he tells me very calmly “If you remember one thing we’ll get along fine. It’s almost certain that I can fly the thing better than you can fix it”
That’s great.