Second Lieutenant Smith, fresh from receiving his commission, walks into the office of Sergeant Major of the Army Jones, a combat veteran with 20 years of military service. Smith orders Jones to drop and do fifty push-ups.
Two questions: (1) what happens theoretically? and (2) what happens in actual fact?
Second Lieutenant smith, wouldn’t be in Sergeant Major of the Army Jones’ chain of command to give him any orders. Also, Second Lieutenant Smith wouldn’t even get away with pushing a private around that way, unless that private was still in Basic.
WillSantini, are you a Sgt? I’m just wondering because of your handle reminding me of The Great Santini, a movie about a Sgt. from years ago.
Does the scenario you describe ever actually happen? I thought that commissions come from the President; does it often happen that some new junior commissioned officer screws up so badly that the motion to decommission him travels all the way up the chain of command resulting in his being axed?
Spectre, yes, officers can and sometimes are decommissioned. Also, under certain circumstances, they can resign their commission and re-enter the service as an enlisted man. (There is a sergeant in Airman Doors’s unit who resigned his commission because he couldn’t do what he wanted as an officer, but he could as enlisted. This is a Guard unit, so take that into account, because they have somewhat more flexibility than a regular military unit.)
X-ray, Santini, thanks for your responses. Suppose the order were less severe, something that wasn’t hazing. I guess what I’m getting at is whether there exists any circumstance in which the SMA (who I understand is currently the personal assistant to the Army Chief of Staff) would have to display subordination to the higher ranked 2nd Lt. If they were passing on the sidewalk, for example, would the SMA at least have to initiate a salute?
I must say I am only looking at this from a Marine Corps point of view: In theory yes, the SgtMaj would have to salute a 2ndLt.
I was once watching from my barracks room a group of Lt’s (both 2nd and 1st) when the Battalion SgtMaj walked out of the building. The Lt’s parted like the Red Sea and the SgtMaj walked through and never even acknowledged them.
There are two kinds of military authority: (1) General Authority, and (2) Positional Authority. The Lieutenant has general authority over the SGM and, if the order is lawful (such as “your uniform is missing a required item, correct that, Sergeant Major”), then the SGM has the duty of following it. If the order is not lawful, the SGM has the duty to not follow it. If the Lieutenant were to be assigned as the SGM’s platoon leader, then he would have positional authority also over the SGM.
G-Unit, why do you say “hoorah” that the SgtMaj didn’t salute the Lt’s? Seems to me he violated one of the most basic of all the military customs and courtesies. Due to his senior enlisted rank, he is supposed to be an example to those junior personnel, but clearly has no regard for established traditions.
I would have been much more impressed if the story ended with one of the Lt’s correcting him on the spot.
In a nutshell, if I have positional authority over you, then I’m responsible for your actions. It also means that anyone who wants to get to you has to go through me.
Alessan covered the general idea. The specifics is that if a Lieutenant goes into the company clerk’s office and orders the clerk to stop what he’s doing and go somewhere, he’s abusing his authority. The positional authority over the company clerk is the clerk’s first line supervisor and it is that supervisor who gets to decide how the clerk will be employed.
There are no Marshals in the US armed forces, though there is the US Marshals Service, but they’re a completely different, non-military kind of Marshal.