Thread: Military training camps - Who's the head honcho?

I have my main character speaking with his commanding officer about a problem with his assignment to Special Operations. What rank would the commanding officer typically be? Captain? General?

Thanks.

You mean a boot camp? I think you'd very rarely see an officer in charge of a training camp. It tends to be the non-commissioned officers (NCO) who run the show. Depending on the armed force in question, probably the equivalent of an E-8 or E-9. That would be a master-sergeant or a sergeant-major for the Army and Marines, senior master-sergeant and chief master-sergeant for the Air Force, and senior chief petty officer or master chief petty officer for the Navy.

I have no experience with this other than what I've read, so I could be well wrong.

Ok, so calling the commanding officer Sergeant Riera would work?

Anyone else confirm or debunk? I want to get this 100% right.

While sergeants (NCOs) do most of the training work, there will always be an officer in-charge. In business terms, NCOs are labor while officers are management. Businesses are always run by managers, never the workers. In your specific problem, Eicca, your soldier would use the chain of command. He would start out by speaking with his sergeant, but he might eventually speak with a captain, then a colonel, and theoretically eventually a general, but this kind of a problem would never rise that high. If your soldier wanted out of the assignment, the sergeant might give your soldier some advice about how to handle the problem but would be powerless to change the assignment. The captain would have more authority, but would still only be in a position to ask for or recommend a change. The captain could not change the assignment himself. What is the specific problem your soldier has? C.M.

If you want the one in charge of the training facility, the common term is Commandant

commandant [ˈkɒmənˌdænt -ˌdɑːnt]n an officer commanding a place, group, or establishment

-commandant - definition of commandant by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Commandant ( /ˌkɒmənˈdɑːnt/ or /ˌkɒmənˈdænt/) is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations. In some non-English speaking countries it may be a military or police title or rank.

-Commandant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


ETA: What commission the officer holds depends somewhat on the size and importance of the facility, and which branch of the military, and possibly which nation and era.

The soldier in question's problem is this: His deployment to work as a military agent has been delayed due to a problem to be later explained in the book, so they notify him that he will have a different assignment until the issue is resolved. The officer does not actually do the assignment changing, he just relays the orders and gives the soldier a stack of papers with the full statement. I take it I should go with Commandant or Captain then?

In that case, you can go with the Commandant, or as it's a paper-pushing exercise, with the Adjutant (the Commandant's senior clerical officer; usually two ranks lower, although in large or specialised facilities may be only one rank lower).

There are some differences between "boot camp" and a "military academy".

If your main character is a civilian with no military experience, he would go to a boot camp. With very rare exceptions, all problems of a personal nature are handled by drill instructors, ranked E-5 to E-7. Complex personnel issues would be deferred to Lieutenants, or possibly a Capitan. A major disruption of the recruit's training cycle would then be signed-off by a higher-up (poss. Major or light bird). The recruit would normally never see a high ranking officer.

A private military academy or specialty school assumes a bit more professionalism, and "personal service". While it is more likely that the "recruit" could see the Officer in Charge (OIC), it's still not likely. Delegation of authority is standard throughout all services in the world, even with personnel issues. If your MC's problem is both very big, and unusual, it is possible (but still not likely) they will see the OIC or his assistant.

Think about it. If you're in charge of hundreds of students and their staff, are you going to let yourself be bothered by routine matters? Especially if the matter could more easily be resolved at a lower level?

His Direct Reporting NCO would handle a disruption with his training cycle.

Ooooh. Thank you for that bit on the military training academy! Fits my story much better! Would the officer-in-charge still be referred to as Commandant in such a setting? What would be the rank of the assistant?

I concur with the belief that a routine matter like telling a trainee that his training has been delayed would be handled by his sergeant. If the trainee were to ask why? the sergeant could honestly say "I don't know." with an implied 'I'm just following orders by telling you this. They did not tell me why.' So now you have a built in reason for not telling your readers right away. Your main character does not know. As far as commandant goes, I've seen the term used in many different contexts. I once went to a small school run by a senior NCO, and he was commandant of the school. At the other extreme, the head of the entire Marine Corps is called the commandant. And I've seen the term used at various ranks in between with no rhyme or reason as to who was a commandant and who was not. I've also been in large training organizations where every level of the chain of command was filled by a commander - no commandants at all. If you want to use it, Eicca, go ahead, but if you don't want to, you can get away without it. C.M.

Originally Posted by Winston

There are some differences between "boot camp" and a "military academy".

If your main character is a civilian with no military experience, he would go to a boot camp. With very rare exceptions, all problems of a personal nature are handled by drill instructors, ranked E-5 to E-7. Complex personnel issues would be deferred to Lieutenants, or possibly a Capitan. A major disruption of the recruit's training cycle would then be signed-off by a higher-up (poss. Major or light bird). The recruit would normally never see a high ranking officer.

A private military academy or specialty school assumes a bit more professionalism, and "personal service". While it is more likely that the "recruit" could see the Officer in Charge (OIC), it's still not likely. Delegation of authority is standard throughout all services in the world, even with personnel issues. If your MC's problem is both very big, and unusual, it is possible (but still not likely) they will see the OIC or his assistant.

Think about it. If you're in charge of hundreds of students and their staff, are you going to let yourself be bothered by routine matters? Especially if the matter could more easily be resolved at a lower level?

His Direct Reporting NCO would handle a disruption with his training cycle.

My Drill instructor was E4 Staff Sgt under an E5.

Just a reminder, this is your world, unless you specify a particular(real) special forces. So use the best answers for your story.
If you specify a real training camp, research that specific as much as possible. It matters.

The closer the person is to boot camp the more nervous they are around officers. The more a person deals with officers, the more they realize there are idiots with metal insignia too. (sometimes even more, then cloth insignia)

Looks like I'll be safe sticking with Commandant or Commander (I may go with the latter because it makes the training academy sound more important).

Thanks for all the help! This is turning out great!

Teen boot camps are highly structured programs. These programs are among the most structured and can therefore handle just about the worst out of control teen. Boot camps often use “scare tactics” to force change on participants who in most cases eventually break to these tactics. If you have a teen who is so physically out of control that you can’t deal with him/her, then a boot camp might be a solution.

Usually, you would talk to the lowest possible point in your chain of command for such an issue. I never talked to a Commanding Officer. Although I was only ever an enlisted. Depending on the rank of your character you might want to change that commander part. In the US military people called a Detailer usually is the one to talk to about specific orders you have a problem with. Either that or your Superior who would then talk to a Detailer for you if you got through to them. In the Navy this person is usually a Yeomen at the Enlisted level. In the other branches... I have no idea. Its got an entirely different MOS for it.

Like I was saying though, If your character got put with a Special Forces unit and had a problem with his new orders, in a real life scenario he would talk to a detailer about this. A Detailer does EVERYTHING regarding orders for you most likely and you see one about every 2 years.

As for boot camp, you would NEVER under any circumstance as a recruit talk to a CO. Also, you would have talked to your recruiter prior to joining about being special forces. Usually you have to volunteer for special forces and most likely you have already worked out all the kinks prior to enlisting or going through more training. In specialized training outside of boot camp what I explained above is what happens. Another thing, you would only ever talk to a CO if something was seriously wrong or you were up high enough that you worked with them. Usually when you get to see a CO in the military its in passing, for a speech, or getting screamed at. XD