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 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.
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