Posted on May 17, 2016
Why are the Ratios for officers and enlisted so different between the services?
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Ratio of Ranks. The DoD Active Duty force has one officer for every 4.8 enlisted personnel. In
comparison, the Air Force has one officer for every 4.1 enlisted personnel, the Army has one
officer for every 4.5 enlisted personnel, the Navy has one officer for every 4.9 enlisted
personnel, and the Marine Corps has one officer for every 8.1 enlisted personnel.
Or at least why does the Marines have less officers?
comparison, the Air Force has one officer for every 4.1 enlisted personnel, the Army has one
officer for every 4.5 enlisted personnel, the Navy has one officer for every 4.9 enlisted
personnel, and the Marine Corps has one officer for every 8.1 enlisted personnel.
Or at least why does the Marines have less officers?
Officer
Enlisted
Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 4
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It's a product of "scale." As the service gets larger you need more Officers, because you need more "Tail for the Spear."
The USMC has LOTS of Spear, not so much Tail. The Army has LOTS of Tail (it's 3x the size).
The USAF & USN have associated Equipment which causes their Officer Counts to go up (Pilots are required to be officers).
Edit: Example: Perfect USMC World 1 officer per 40~ Troops (Infantry Platoon). However at Company Level you add in 2 Additional Officers, so now the ratio is 30:1 instead of 40:1, bump that to BN level and add in the Staff Officers there (like the S2 shop who has 4 people total.... ratio drops again).
Bigger the Organization, more Officers it has at the highest levels, throwing off the ratios. More Pilots and "Non-Troop Leading" Officers, the more skewed the ratio becomes.
The USMC has LOTS of Spear, not so much Tail. The Army has LOTS of Tail (it's 3x the size).
The USAF & USN have associated Equipment which causes their Officer Counts to go up (Pilots are required to be officers).
Edit: Example: Perfect USMC World 1 officer per 40~ Troops (Infantry Platoon). However at Company Level you add in 2 Additional Officers, so now the ratio is 30:1 instead of 40:1, bump that to BN level and add in the Staff Officers there (like the S2 shop who has 4 people total.... ratio drops again).
Bigger the Organization, more Officers it has at the highest levels, throwing off the ratios. More Pilots and "Non-Troop Leading" Officers, the more skewed the ratio becomes.
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SSgt Robert Williams
A simple Air Force Maintainer answer would be, the officers do most of the fighting in our service, i.e. pilots, and various other aircrew jobs, like the Navy, were also a more refined technical branch, or support rather.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
SSgt Robert Williams - Yep. I was a Technician and the Officers were Engineers and Scientist that I was supporting.
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Do your numbers also reflect Warrant Officers? The Air Force does not have WOs, which means all of their pilots are Commissioned Officers. The USAF mission and it's aircraft centric model also means it needs more pilots than the USMC, which would also account for some of the difference in ratios.
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Cpl (Join to see)
MAJ (Join to see) I have not read the full report so I am unsure I would think that it does. Here is the link it is page iii and page 18. http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2012_Demographics_Report.pdf
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Because NCOs are the leaders in the Marine Corps. If you were to look further, you would also find that the Marine Corps has a higher percentage of junior enlisted as well.
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