Do you think Rank equals ability to get the job done?

Absolutely not... (at least in the NCO side). The promotion system is broken (at least it used to be in the early '90's). A good example would be my roommate at Ft Campbell '92.

Jorge was a heck of a nice guy, smart, and maxed his PT test, but he barely spoke English and didn't have much mechanical aptitude, so the Maintenance platoon put him first in the tool bin, and then sent him to be a lifeguard at the post swimming pool.

Like I said, no dummy though, he took college and correspondence courses, and within a year he had the points to make E-5, which automatically made him a squad leader... problem was that he had never really touched an aircraft, and still barely spoke English. Heck of a nice guy, but zero ability to get the job done.

I saw much less of this on the Commissioned side though, usually by the time someone made CPT or MAJ they were pretty squared away, but there were always normal human idiosyncrasies that would make one person better suited for a specific job than another.

Unfortunately my answer is no.

I've seen it many times but there is one time in particular time that will always stand out for me. We were swamped with procedures, short staffed and we had a patient from a previous procedure that needed the tube we left in the femoral artery pulled out (a routine procedure). This is something we are taught to to as junior soldiers. It's a basic part of our job. The only two people available to do so were the NCOIC of the service (E-7) and the NCOIC of the clinic (E-6). The clinic NCOIC refused to do it because he "wasn't signed off on it." The service NCOIC was just about in tears because they couldn't do it because it's been too long since they had done it. The solution (because the patient still needed taken care of) was that another technician had to go take care of it causing the rest of his appointments for the day to be 30 minutes behind.

Theoretically yes...reality NO

Depends on the type of job. Is the person or persons qualified and knowledgeable enough to truly be wearing the rank? Can the leader or ranking person conduct operations and mission effectively and decisively while remaining disciplined? I would say that within the ranks of all the branches the military gets it right about 80% of the time. Will those who truly need help from subordinates to negotiate their own job need the help; ABSOLFRICKINLUTELY!!! I am aware of leadership in the Army at least that speaking from my own experiences from the outside in that Senior leadership and subordinate NCO leadership need a wake up call. The questions for influence and leadership shoudl never go down always up. Like the gripes and compaliners should never whine to their subordinates. A good leader will either be humbled by training from a subordinate member of their team or seek out the solution from their own superior. A leader should never task someone with a job they themselves have never experienced or done. To caveat to this a Leader must rely on intuition and basic knowledge and combat skills. How can a E-5 with a bachelor's degree and maxed out military schools be promoted to E-6/E-7 without ever really getting to know their subordinates? Yet the 20%'s happen to get this way and that is one reason why NCOER's from the Army are so tore up. Many leaders failed at monthly counselings and now fail at yearly evaluations. SO what can fix this....do like the Air Force and show a bit of competency in the MOS as well as the Leadership... DO some drill and ceremony exercises/ train a class on how to load a radio / land nav / and BRM and a well rounded leader will have a tight knit group of steely eyed killers.

Not necessarily an indicator of ability....

Rank equals the ability to assign a job to a subordinate with the instructions on how to complete it, and then follow through until it is completed. That is usually how rank gets a job done.

No. However, sometimes rank helps get things done as they carry more weight than a junior rank.

Most definitely not. I have seen plenty of people who are "senior" or equal in rank to me who couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag, and that's putting it nicely. I've also seen plenty of junior enlisted who could very well get the job done. If anyone is familiar with USR, it's a tough thing to do every single month. During my tenure as the SQDN S4 NCOIC, I had a new and young PFC come to my shop. He assisted me with prepping our part of the USR then after a while he literally took it over. He just stepped up to the plate and ran with it. And he did VERY WELL. he knew what to do and where to acquire the information from. Sadly, he was medically retired for some issues. He had so much potential in the military.

In a collective business or communities Rank allows people to produce all of the goods and services needed to survive. Rank is not no different in the commercial market than a Division of Labor
Rank or Labor specialization refers to the practice of splitting a job into discrete tasks and assigning each task to a specific worker. For example, no worker in a modern car factory makes an entire car from start to finish. Instead, some workers specialize in painting, others in frame assembly, while other workers install seats or dashboards. There are hundreds of specific tasks involved in manufacturing a car, and each task is assigned to an individual worker. You can look at Rank and compare employees that started a entry level and as they accomplished higher taxonomies of skills to take on increased responsibilities and to steer more staff towards a common goal than the person at the entry level.
Productivity is a measure of economic output relative to the amount of labor involved. For example, if a factory can make 100 cars every day and then finds a way to increase production to 110 cars per hour without needing more workers or longer shifts, it has increased its productivity. By the same token, if the factory only makes 90 cars in one week, its productivity has decreased for that week it takes a team to achieve the production goals. The rank has to have other attributes and skills to motivate and drive output.

No, I do not believe that Rank equals ability. During my service those that were E-4 and up did not necessarily have the "experience" in their MOS to do a proper job and were paying the price. Lower ranking SM's were being put in leadership roles to complete the job that the "Section Leader" started.