What is the most important position in the military?

Leading Petty Officer, regardless of rank, (I think that is Squad Leader to the Army) day to day operations are impossible without. They provide direction and education to the actual workers.

First line supervisor. You are the first line of guidance, mentorship and correction. You can have the best Flight, Squadron, Group, Wing, etc Commanders and Chief's but that group of first line supervisors is where Airman are truly grown, molded and shaped to get the mission done.

All of the above.

I suppose it depends on how you ask the question.

I don't think it can quantified well. Each position has their own merits, and is part of the overall effective span of control in the organization. One should not be looked at as being more important than the other.

I believe what positions have more impact on the growth and development of the younger ranks. It will be at the unit level where this happens. A young airman's career is largely going to be shaped by the mentorship and guidance of their junior NCO supervisors and the which is projected from the unit commander to through the senior NCO's. The Senior NCO's will play a large part in the professional development in the fact that they have been in the young airman's position at one time. They know what it takes to succeed in being the bet technical expert in their job and eventually become the subject matter expert to pass on the guidance to the next generation.

I would say it starts at the top and trickles down if any one the links are broken then the mission fails. The chiefs of staff of the services project their vision on how they want the service to operate and carry out the mission. Than it flows down to the major command headquarters who are charged with executing their specific mission this trickles down to the unit level. The unit commanders are tactically charged with carrying out the mission. Each commander has their own vision on how they see that the mission is accomplished within the constraints of higher HQ directives.

No one position can be more or less important than the other. Obviously the Chief of Staff of the service has a very difficult role in running the larger organization. However, the organization as a whole will fall apart if the lower echelons are not meeting the mission. A good example of this is how the Air Force has been dealing with the nuclear issues. The lower level units are not performing to the expected level of the higher leadership. At the same time the higher level leadership has possibly failed in their ability to affect their span of control in a manner that gets the job done correctly. The lower levels fail because they lack the skills, training and effective guidance to do their job at the required level.

CW1-CW5