At Ease! Militarily Speaking...

Militarily speaking… I just finished reading Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. And while this genre of gritty war journal stuff usually isn’t my type, I was curious to read it anyways.

Not to mention I got the book for free… and it was also made into a film… So, from a screenplay perspective, I was interested. I won’t talk much about the book or my reactions; suffice it to say, there are reasons I never joined the military. It doesn't hold back, nor glorify and is a telling account of just what war means to those involved.

Well, I was reading and needed to do a research thing I’d done before. Forgive me peeps, but I’m not “up” on my ranking hierarchy in the armed forces. Prolly for that same reason that I’ve never served? Yeah. So here is an overview of ranks (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Enlisted and commissioned for the US Army, obviously other armed services have different ranks… Obviously.

Overall hierarchy of Enlisted Army ranks:
Private E1
Private E2
Private First Class
Specialist
Corporal
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Sergeant First Class
Master Sergeant
First Sergeant
Sergeant Major
Command Sergeant Major
Sergeant Major of the Army (only 1 of these at a time)

Overall hierarchy of Commissioned Army ranks:
Second Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Captain
Major
Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel
Brigadier General
Major General
Lieutenant General
General
General of the Armed forces

And then that got me to another thing, the NATO phoentic alphabet (aka- International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet) thing that people use to spell out words or call-signs. I looked that up too. Here you go.

A= ALPHA
B= BRAVO
C= CHARLIE
D= DELTA
E= ECHO
F= FOXTROT
G= GOLF
H= HOTEL
I= INDIA
J= JULIET
K= KILO
L= LIMA
M= MIKE
N= NOVEMBER
O= OSCAR
P= PAPA
Q= QUEBEC
R= ROMEO
S= SIERRA
T= TANGO
U= UNIFORM
V= VICTOR
W= WHISKEY
X= XRAY
Y= YANKEE
Z= ZULU

Now, further on the subject of military… I have put Alexander in my Nflix queue. Somehow I have a feeling it will only disappoint, but I’m gonna try to watch all three hours of it anyways. I mean, production budget was $155 mil (Prints and Advert budget was $46 mil)and it grossed $34.3 mil domestically? Sheesh. Can you say, “Somebody’s career prolly ended on that green light.” Ouch.

Okay, I am interested in seeing a film that was recently released, Pan’s Labyrinth. This trailer is kinda looking like Brazil, Lemony Snicket’s, and Peter Pan Neverland warped together.But hey, what’s in a name? I mean, I dig it already. Heh heh.

Enjoy your weekend. Cheers.

image credits: Black Hawk Down from Wikipedia, Pan's Labyrinth from Pan's Labyrinth Official Movie Site.