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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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.
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