I am a lifelong civilian. My college roommate was in Navy ROTC, and he explained to me that a general is a general, with a comparable degree of military training and knowledge, no matter what country he’s from. (This conversation took place in 1982.)
This past week, the King of Siam had a big ceremony making his mistress, Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, an official Royal Consort. She is 34 and has supermodel good looks. She’s also a Major General in the Thai army. Some websites describe her as one of Thailand’s top military officers; other websites describe her as an “army nurse.” I know that many army nurses are officers; I don’t know of any who are generals, but this is well outside my area of expertise. I also don’t know of any modern American generals who are that young, though it’s not without precedent.
Is she the real deal? Would an American senior officer regard her as an actual General in the event of some kind of joint training exercise?
Also, are there foreign militaries with no generals? I recall a time when Ghana’s most senior military officer was a Flight Lieutenant, but this was during a coup and was presumably an unusual circumstance.
Finally, do groups like ISIS and the Taliban have military ranks, and are these acknowledged by the militaries of, for want of a better term, “real” countries?
How should I say this without offending the Thais… it’s a bullshit rank. I know it, they know it, everyone knows it. I doubt she’ll ever take part in a join training exercise, but if she does, the foreign officers will show her all the respect her rank demands and then politely ignore anything she has to say.
As for your other questions:
In Libya under Colonel Qaddafi, the highest rank in the military was, coincidentally, Colonel. They may do.
Countries do not recognize ranks of non-government forces, unless it suits their purposes.
Not really sure what that has to do with the rest of your question. It doesn’t change the authority or legitimacy of her rank.
With that said, there are nurses in the United States Army who are general officers. If they participate in “some kind of joint training exercise”, their decisions will be limited to medical-related issues such as hospital staffing, medical equipment, coordination of higher Roll medical care, etc. They don’t make tactical command decisions. Neither would she. Any medical-related decisions she made concerning those under her command would follow her orders accordingly.
ISIS and Taliban do have a rank structure, commanders, lieutenants, etc. Hell, the Taliban even have a political structure, with shadow governors in every province. Their authority is not “recognized” by their position is acknowledged as strategically and tactically relevant. It’s how we assign value to particular targets, among other things. Also, when the US and Afghan government have meetings with the Taliban, it is usually these shadow governors or their representatives who are present for the talks. So, in a way, I guess that’s some kind of acknowledgement.
Youth and dreamy good looks get mentioned a lot with Justin Trudeau and Beto O’Rourke, and they’re both way older than her. And piloting a military aircraft in a camo bra would raise a few eyebrows if any American general did it.
Youth and inexperience is one thing, but if you can show me a cite where a man’s supermodel good looks were deemed relevant to his ability to lead an organization I’d love to see it.
I either answered that upthread, or I don’t know what you want from me. Do you seriously think her supermodel good looks are irrelevant to why she is in the news?
Pretty people get breaks the rest of us don’t, and I’ve made my peace with that. Those breaks don’t usually come with a General’s rank and responsibilities. Generals are usually old and piss-ugly. This one is neither, and the circumstances of her ascent are surprisingly opaque. In America, that would equal two red flags.
There’s a rich tradition of Thai kings taking a royal consort, but not in modern times and not with a high-ranking military officer. There’s smething else going on here.
There’s plenty going on here, but I’m just focusing on your questions. While her appearance may be relevant to other discussions, it isn’t to the question you asked. You wanted to know how other countries would acknowledge her rank in a joint exercise. I happen to have just left a unit that participates in Cobra Gold, a biennial joint training exercise held in Thailand. I don’t know what specifically this general is in charge of, but if she were placed in a leadership position affecting the actions of US personnel, we would execute her orders like any other order from a commanding general of a friendly foreign nation. Her looks would be irrelevant. Really, her entire commissioning process would be irrelevant. But her appearance is especially irrelevant.
With that said, I have no idea what her position is, whether or not it is ceremonial or honorary, or if she is actually in command of anything. But that’s up to Thailand. If they put her in charge of a unit, and that unit has operational control of a US unit, then we recognize her authority and execute her orders. Its that simple. I would hope that if she is incompetent, the junior officers in her staff would correct any problems before the orders were published.
But yes. She is like any other general officer. Though, as I noted above, not every general is placed in command of combat units & maneuver elements.
As far as Taliban are concerned, for their field leaders they as far as I can tell, use the English word “Commander”. Above that they use the term Ameer which also mean “leader” in several languages. So an Ameer of say Nangahar, who will have several Commanders answering (in theory) to him. Might be assisted by a deputy known as a Naib Ameer or deputy leader.
The Thai situation at least has a person who had undergone training. For ridiculousness, just look at the various Generals the US has annointed in Afghanistan, in one case selecting a mechanic in a garage since his half brother was the previous General.
I did a quick internet browse. I still don’t know exactly what kind of unit she is in charge of. I see pictures of her in fighter jets, as well as mention of her being a nurse and others about her being in the unit responsible for protection of the king–so she was one of his bodyguards, apparently? Anyway, I was thinking that maybe her rank was ceremonial or honorary and just came with her position as consort. But that’s not the case. She was a general before being a consort. So, she’s definitely a full-on general of the Thai military and would be treated just like any other. So, yes, she is the real deal.
Eh… perhaps, but something tells me her story is probably more Prince Philip (he’s been styled as Admiral of the Fleet and entitled to wear the uniform since he was in his early thirties, even though he was only really a junior officer in the Navy up until his marriage to then Princess Elizabeth), and less George Armstrong Custer, even if she wasn’t “officially” a concubine before she became a Major General.
The best I can say is that her rank is no less bizarre than the various honors the British bestow upon their royal family, but I doubt very much it came strictly through merit.
Heh. Yeah, well, I was never really into that scene; I’ve always been perfectly fine with being the one Israeli who never goes to Thailand (unlike, say, my sister, who’s been there at least three times).
Isn’t “Admiral of the Fleet” something more like a honorary position? I mean, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Lord Boyce are all 3 Admirals of the Fleet, but none have any operational command authority.
Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, reached general officer rank at about that age, as did John Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough. They both had pretty solid careers under their belts by that point, mind you.
It can been an operational rank. Admiral Cunningham was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet during WWII, for example. I suspect it’s a bit like Field Marshal in wartime - partly used to establish equivalence with allied forces rank structures. The professional head of the Royal Navy is the First Sea Lord (and Cunningham was that too, of course)
