I was half heartedly watching Mepmphis Belle today. But I noted that the character played by Eric Stoltz is a Staff Sergeant. The night before the Memphis Belle’s 25th mission, at a dance he is talking to a member of a new crew for another plane in the latrine. The “newb” is wearing Master Sergeant stripes. This took me right out of the movie.
Why would a Master Sergeant act so inexpierenced as to ask a Staff Sergeant for advice? I know it must have been a different army in the 1940’s, but its still hard to ignore that for me. Perhaps I’m looking at it in a modern view which does not fit the time period. Master Sergeants nowadays are either serving as First Sergeants or high level NCO positions. They are expected to know everything about whatever they are doing. No Master Sergeant I know would ever show weakness in front of lower than them them enlisted purposely. In order to just be a Master Sergeant they’ve proven themselves. I’m not a master sergeant but I wouldn’t display my fears in front of a subordinate, like a buck sergeant or a corporal. (Even if I wanted to shit my pants)
Oh, well, its a small conundrum. As I said, the rank structure may have been not as tight back then. I just wondered if anyone else noticed it.
Any enlisted flight position in WW II was a NCO slot. All the gunners, radioman, and engineer were sergeants, while the pilots, navigator and bombadier were officers.
I was reading a history of the 8th AirForce, and one of the first bomb groups had a top flight ball gunner who kept getting busted whenever he wasn’t flying. Since Army Air Force regs prohibited privates from flying, his CO would, prior to a mission, promote him to sergeant, then bust him right back down to private upon landing.
So, in Memphis Belle, I would imagine the scene was more one were the combat rookie (who HAD to be a sergeant), was getting advice from the grizzled vet, with the ranks being irrelevant to the social dynamics.
Even nowadays, there’s a difference between rank and experience.
I was a flyer in the Air Force, as an E-4, and even when I was an E-2 or an E-3, more than once I had an E-8 ask me questions because I had been doing the job longer than he had. If we are about to fly something breaks with the weapon, I had no problems telling them what to do. I knew what needed done, he didn’t. Now, I wouldn’t be rude and if we were on the ground and he told me to go do something I’d do it without arguing, but in the air, I had more experience. Hell, I’d tell even the pilots what to do, if it needed. We are all crew members.