What is the most important position in the military?

I would have to agree with the answer of Team leader. In most cases, the Team Leader (at least from an 11B, enlisted, perspective) is the first leader that a Soldier is introduced to and interacts with the most. A good Team Leader, that leads by example and sets the standard will influence a good portion of that Soldiers' career, whether it is just a two year enlistment or a twenty-plus year career. Many of the leadership qualities and standards that I tend to still try to emulate today, were what I saw in my first Team Leader (a CPL), with the 101st. I would hazard a guess concerning the commissioned side of the fence in saying that SQD LDRS, PLT SGTs, and CO CDRS may hold an equally important role when it comes to molding the beginning stages of an officers' career. Some of the first lessons and habits we learn when we come into the military tend to be the ones that stick with us the longest, good or bad. Just my humble opinion from my side of the foxhole...

This will whack quite a few of you but would you consider each individual as a leader?  Every person in the unit has a responsibility to perform his/her expected duties to the highest level possible...if this is not done, the mission will suffer and the common strength to perform as a unit will be lost...each individual has an important contribution to the success of the unit and this contribution is the essence of leadership!

If you are the trooper who is in command, on any given site, at any given moment, YOU are the most important leader.

Important to whom?  If it's important to the soldiers then I'd say the company level leaders like the Squad Leader, PL, PLT SGT, 1SG, CDR.  If you are asking which is the most tactically important, I'd say the CO CDR, BN CDR, BN S3, BN/BDE S2.  If you are talking strategic importance, then it's the General Officers and their NCO counterparts.  I don't think you can really nail it down to one position without a more detailed question.

Ummmmmm................Missionary. I want that eye contact while I'm getting Blue Falconed.

From the experiences that I have had during my service, I would have to say hands down that the most important personnel in the military are the mid-grade NCOs (E-5 to E-7).

These are the professionals who are training and supervising the line troops who are accomplishing the mission. These are also the primary trainers of our officer corps when they enter the service and are performing duties at the company grade level.

This group of subject matter experts are the ones who are actually using the systems that have been designed, following (and fixing) the plans that have been laid by rear echelon senior officers and NCOs who are not in contact and are getting to be more worried about reports and memos, and last but not least, they are the ones who are the reason the mission was accomplished (lead by example, enforce the standard, improvise, overcome and adapt).

If it wasn't for the professional NCOs that we have across the services, our military would not be the force that it is.

The guys writing evaluations. At the moment they are writing evaluations, they are the most important.

Next, all E-3's to E-5s on deployments with a lot of contact with the locals. That E-4 has huge influences over policies, but typically they don't know it since they only ever obey. But given the fact they are the machinery that makes things happen, you can't ignore them.

People within the Good Ol'boys club.

Privates. Period. Without privates, nothing would get done. Layout, cleaning, maintaining weapons and Vic's. Who would Srgs train? Who would be there to make them look good? Without privates, the army would collapse on itself. Headfirst. Privates make the army work.

All of them.

To me there isn't one. We need the strategist as much as we need the door kicker. But that door kicker can't function without food in his belly and an NCO to teach him. The strategist can't function without Intel and they all need logistics and equipment. And the lawyers make sure everyone is not going to prison. I can't pick one