About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

1 1 (December 27, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbevv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




01;0i E.$~                                  &


Defense Primer: Military Officer


The armed forces are hierarchical organizations with clearly
defined levels of authority. The different levels for officers
are defined in law and called grades, while rank refers to
the order of precedence among those in different grades and
within the same grade (e.g., someone who has been a Major
for three years outranks someone who has been a Major for
two years; see 10 U.S.C. §741). However, it is common for
the term rank to be used as a synonym for grade. Pay grade
is an administrative classification that determines certain
rates of pay, but it is sometimes used to indicate grade as
well. For example, a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy
may be referred to as an 0-4. See Figure 1.
~~N, bersi and  ik~
Officers make up about 18% of the armed forces, with
enlisted personnel making up the other 82%. Officers
outrank all enlisted personnel. Table 1 below lists the
number of active duty officers in each pay grade.
Warrant officers (pay grades W-1 to W-5) perform highly
technical or specialized work within their career field and
also, in the case of the Army, serve as helicopter pilots.
Warrant officers constitute about 8% of the officer corps.


                             Updated December 27, 2019

s

Company-grade or junior-grade officers (pay grades 0-1
to 0-3) typically lead units with several dozen to several
hundred personnel, or serve as junior staff officers. They
make up about 57% of the officer corps.
Field-grade or mid-grade officers (pay grades 0-4 to 0-6)
typically lead units with several hundred to several
thousand personnel, or serve as senior staff officers. They
make up about 35% of the officer corps. There are statutory
limits on the number of officers in these grades (10 U.S.C.
§523).
General or flag officers (pay grades 0-7 to 0-10) may
lead units or organizations with several thousand to
hundreds of thousands of personnel or serve as staff for the
largest military organizations. General and flag officers
make up just under 0.4% of the officer corps. There are
statutory limits on the number of officers in these grades
(10 U.S.C. §525-526a).
n , S ,x   i ,, a
As shown in Figure 1, each officer grade in the armed
forces has distinctive insignia, typically worn on the sleeve,
shoulder, collar, and/or headgear (caps, berets, etc.).


Table I. Active Duty Military Officers by Pay Grade (as of September 30, 2019)

                                                        Services
      Pay Grade                                                                                       Total
                              Army              Navy           Marine Corps        Air Force
        0-10                    13                8                 4                 12                37
        09                     44                40                 16                42                142
        0-8                    114                63                29                89                295
        0-7                    127               101                37                144              409
        0-6                   3,969             3,127              648               3,336             1 1,080
        0-5                   8,772             6,694              1,909             97               27,152
        0-4                   15,443            10,520            3,905             14,040            43,908
        0-3                   28,397            [8,742            6,015             20,666            73,820
        0-2                   11,019            6,846             3,642              7,721            29,228
        0-1                   10,230            7,198             3,087              8,075            28,S90
        W-5                    581               86                107                0                 774
        W-4                   1,943              398               306                0                2,647
        W-3                   3,842              704               607                0                5,153
        W-2                   5,286              606               876                0                6,768
        W_-1                  2,630               0                256                0                2,886

        Total                92,410             55,133            21,444            63,902            232,889
Source: Department of Defense, Defense Manpower Data Center.


'.0


mppm qq\
        ' p\w gn'a', ggmm
               I
'S
INLIANJILiN,

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most