I’ve read several explanations but they all go over my head. I can’t seem to find an actually decent explanation as to what a “commission” is in a military setting.
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A non commissioned officer is just a senior enlisted serviceman. Commissions require a degree and officer school and you are a more senior rank. Non commissioned officers don’t require this and you naturally become one by advancing through the enlisted ranks.
In the United States military, and is common in many other militaries, there are a few different types of military members.
The three are Enlisted, Warrant Officer, and Commissioned Officer
Your question deals with Enlisted and Commissioned Officer
Enlisted members are “the masses” if you will. They can (but don’t necessarily) join after high school, have little if any post-high school education, and they learn a skill or a trade via training and execute that skill. They are foot soldiers, mechanics, medical technicians, radio operators, and a whole host of other “technical” specialities.
Their rank titles start at things like Private, Seaman, Airman, and denote “the lowest” of all military ranks when they start.
Commissioned officers are “leaders” and “managers” from the very beginning. Often the baseline requirement is a 4 year college degree. Many officers attend West Point / Navy Academy / Air Force Academy and learn military and leadership skills in a very intense military and academic environment throughout their college years. Others do ROTC at other colleges and learn military and leadership skills throughout college. Others finish their degree and then attend officer training. Officers start at ranks with names like Lieutenant or Ensign, and move up to Captain in a few years (in all services but the Navy). Although new out of college, they can be assigned to manage dozens of Soldiers / Seamen / Airmen / Marines, etc, even those with greater years in service.
When an enlisted person has been for at least a few years (this varies by each service) they can get promoted to the ranks with names like Corporal, Sergeant or Petter Officer, and become a “Non-Commissioned Officer” or NCO and have more responsibility and authority over other enlisted people. However, the NCO is always lower in rank than any officer. The NCO may have a lot of knowledge, and expertise, and some very good leadership ability, but there is no natural rank progression from NCO to commissioned officer track.
After several more years, the NCO can become a Senior NCO, (SNCO) or equivalent.
Note that the Commissioned Officer has a “commission” from the President of the United States. They are by default in the military until they retire or request to resign. The enlisted person has a contract for a set number of years and then has to request to extend or get a new contract.
The enlisted “pay grades” which are the levels across all the branches start at E-1, and then go all the way up to E-9. Of these the NCO ranks are usually E-4 or E-5 up to E-6, and the SNCO grades are E-7 through E-9.
The officer pay grades start at O-1 and go all the way up to O-10 (which is a four star general).
So to summarize, a person enlists right out of high school, is a “worker bee” or “technician” for a few years, then might be able to be an NCO and supervise others, and can increase in promotion to be responsible for more people. An officer has a degree, and can be given a lot of responsibility over a lot of people right away, and can increase in rank all the way up to the general ranks. Every officer outranks every enlisted person.
Since I mentioned Warrant Officers at the beginning, I will briefly explain. Warrant Officers are higher than enlisted, and they are lower than commissioned officers. They are often former enlisted people, and they keep their technical expertise without as much of the supervisor roles.
If I can compare it to a factory
An enlisted person is operating a machine to make a product (new enlisted person), after some years that person can be put in charge of a few people operating machines (NCO), and then eventually be a floor foreman of sorts (SNCO). There are also machine experts there who design and overhaul the machines and keep them running in top shape (Warrant Officers). Then there are the managers who are in charge of all of those folks, even if they have only worked there a short amount of time, but have fancy degrees in business or something. Those are the officers.
I hope that answers your questions.
A commissioned officer is the guy who makes the big-picture decisions. A sergeant (edit: meant to say NCO, accidentally said a common NCO rank) is the guy who figures out how to do those decisions.
The lieutenant (a low-ranking commissioned officer) will decide where they need to dig a trench. He will say “sergeant, I need a trench right here.” The sergeant will focus on the fine details of how it gets dug, which guys are doing the digging, where to put the reinforcements, things like that. The lieutenant, if he’s doing his job right, is going to be too busy making other decisions and doing other things to get caught up in how this works out and he is very likely not going to be trained to do it right (particularly when it requires specialist technical skills: he’s trained as a manager, not a welder, not an aircraft mechanic, not various other things).
The captain, his department heads, and his division officers are in charge of making sure that the different parts of the fancy piece of equipment that he’s in charge of (a ship) get used effectively. The master chief petty officer and petty officers below him manage the various people who keep it running: welders, mechanics, electricians, and a few other guys like that.
A commission is an official document from a dignitary (typically a head of state) saying that the person has this authority and the responsibility that comes with it. And the responsibility is a big deal: if you’re in charge, you’re in charge. If someone under you made a bad decision that resulted in people getting hurt unnecessarily, you’ll be called to explain to your boss what happened. You may very likely get fired, depending on severity.
It has to do with how militaries traditionally worked, when they transitioned from a feudal system where local lords have their own personal armies, to a national system where the armies are part of an overarching nation.
A “commission” is an authorization from the leader (king, president, whatever) to form and lead an army. It’s literally a letter. Traditionally, this is something that only noblemen get, and would often have to be purchased. A Captain’s commission allows the holder to form a company, in the case of the army, or command a ship, in the case of the Navy, as well as recruit and train soldiers. Often, officers would start their careers as a lieutenant (which is an assistant to the captain). As armies started getting bigger and needing higher level organization, they added ranks above captain (colonel, general, etc). In the Navy, it’s a bit of the opposite: the complexity of operating a ship and of naval combat required more assistants, and to delegate more power, thus the Navy has more ranks under captain.
A non-commissioned officer is specially appointed by an officer to conduct more complex, to help the officer manage the soldiers. Traditionally, these are sergeants. The term “officer” is because they hold an office and can do clerical duties, such as managing the armory, or supervising training. These non-commissioned officers do not have a letter authorizing them to form their own companies and recruit their own men.
Today, when people join the military, they can apply to become officers or soldiers. Soldiers can be promoted to non-commissioned officers, but not to officers.
I spent 10 years enlisted, went to Officer Candidate School, and then spent the rest of my career as an officer, retiring as an O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel, in the Army).
NCOs are the ones who ensure the nuts and bolts get done. They generally provide the day to day supervision, and are the ones who develop the closest relationships with their troops. They, in many units, know everything about the troops.
Officers look out for the bigger picture. They should know not just what needs to be done, but WHY it needs to be done…and while a bit simplistic, they are held to a higher degree if responsibility for getting the mission accomplished.
I don’t understand why Army helicopter pilots are Warrant Officers and not regular officers, like in the Navy.
This is essentially a very outdated structure that will never change. Historically, enlisted were uneducated and unskilled. The military taught them skill for manual labor type jobs. Officers were educated (wealthy) so took on leadership roles.
In the modern military, enlisted members often have degrees, are educated and come from all different wealth classes.
Also, unique to the Coast Guard, enlisted Boatswain Mates can be Officers in Charge (equivalent to a Commanding Officer) and Executive Petty Officers (equivalent to Executive Officers).
To actually explain it like you’re five in a very basic sense:
Commissioned officers decide what needs to be done and tells the NCO to do it (i want that hill go get it for me NCO)
Non commissioned officers decide how it needs to be done and ensures that it is (alright guys heres how were gonna take this hill)
The enlisted guys are the one who gotta go do it (fuck we gotta take that hill)
NCOs work downwards, controlling any enlisted lower rank than them. Like supervisors alongside workers.
COs work upwards, taking information from the important NCOs and giving it to higher COs until it’s high enough for orders to be issued with a firm grasp of the ‘big picture’ . Like store managers or regional/district managers.
Technically any CO “outranks” any NCO, leading to the need to salute officers and do special ceremonies for the important ones. In reality the command structure is highly contextual and wouldn’t fit into any ELI5 in a way that covers every possibility. My rank as an E-4 was below any NCO or CO, but my job was important enough that I was regularly the one ‘informing’ high ranking COs when they needed to do things, so there are plenty of outliers where things get complicated.
>Specifically ELI5 : ‘What is a commission’
A Commissioned officer is like the structure of a building; established with purpose directly by the people running the show. A Non-Commissioned officer is like the furniture and equipment, absolutely necessary for the building to serve its purpose but interchangeable and varies quite often. The general Enlisted soldiers are the employees that use everything provided but both the building (COs command and control) and the equipment (NCOs leadership and education) make all the orders happen.
If US military units were businesses, officers would be the owners/executives while NCOs would be the managers.
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