You fondle my trigger then you blame my gun...

About a third of the way though The Era of the Business Idiot I was reminded of the Master Sergeant who was brought in to replace our own who had recently retired. It should have been a near-seamless transition. Rank (at least at the enlisted level) is divided into three categories, junior enlisted, non-commissioned officers (NCO); and senior NCOs - broadly the proletariats in this system. junior enlisted (rank E1-E4) is tiered as specialization fields - each level is a mastery of a specific craft. Please keep in mind I spent the majority of my military career as an E4, never becoming an NCO myself, as this may skew my perspective.

Specialization levels out at E5, where addition managerial responsibilities come into play - being responsible for the development and training of junior enlisted - they still know their craft, but are also in a position to teach it to others, and lead junior enlisted. Where this diverges is in the senior NCO ranks (E7-E9). Senior NCOs are (generally) considered to be managerial positions, and I'm not arguing against the need for managers given the complexity and diversity of these systems, but the idea is that at certain ranks, people-managers are interchangeable as such - it flattens the stovepipes of specialization allowing for a greater pool from which to draw for manpower.

At least that's the idea.

I argued at the time that ascension through the ranks based on specialization was key to creating effective people-managers within specialization fields. I never struggled with conceptualizing, "every job in the military is important" simply that every job in the military shouldn't? be managed identically. This was driven home when they replaced our Master Sergeant who had risen to that rank working intelligence with one who'd spent his career on the flightline. It shouldn't have mattered at that rank according to the meta, as they were both people-managers and managing people is globally interchangeable. At least in theory. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it didn't work out well for anyone involved. But it was really only after my disastrous experience in being assigned to the strategic intelligence field after years in the tactical intelligence field did I understand how important a history of knowledge in a specific field managing those who are highly specialized play into being an effective manager.