Quote:
Originally Posted by mityno  The level of the rank of "Captain" varies widely from one country to another and even from one branch of military to another.
For instance, in the US Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a Captain is the third lowest officer rank, or "O-3". That's just above an "O-2" First Lieutenant.
But in the US Navy a Captain is the rank of O-6, equivalent to a full bird Colonel in the other branches. This is a very big difference.
Do we know how the rank of Captain is approximately ranked against the US system of officer rank? This would make a big difference in his relative importance. |
The different NATO forces have a pretty similar ranking system. Captain is usually OF-2 or OF-3.
There is no rank of major (the rank which he might get promoted to) in the Royal Navy nor the Royal Air Force that I've found, so I was assuming that he was part of the Army, hence why I called him captain (which is below major). In that case, he's OF-2. Still, the rank doesn't really disclose how much information he has access to. It depends what his work is. A private/other lower rank can work in a battallion operation cell and have full overview of all of the activities of the battalion. He might have a better overview of the whole battalion during operations than for example the squadron leaders (though due to his inferior experience, it will be harder to understand).
An intelligence officer in a battalion staff might most likely be a captain/major. But a captain/major who is working at a higher level, maybe more administrative (stationed in Vegas, of all places?) might be privy to information at a higher level. Still, I'm not so sure how much he he can know about what most people seem interested in, which seems to be big political questions, "why are we REALLY in Iraq?", "Is the [some branch] aiding the Taliban?", "[insert conspiracy slanted question]". But maybe he knows about this stuff, or at least can make educated guessess. But then it is the question of if he can answer them at all.
Maybe getting a more personal interview would be more informative, his experiences, what he does on a regular basis, what his ambitions are. How working in the British Forces has been like. But maybe that has less of an appeal to most people.