Why is there such a pronounced difference in how the military treats officers vs enlisted people? This even extends to how they are treated when a POW, as seen in Bridge Over River Kwai.

Question

I *completely* understand that there needs to be a hierarchy, but there seems to be a big discontinuity between these different classifications. When I was in the Navy, I noticed this extended to eating accommodations, and even how ships were built (different hallways for enlisted and officers to walk down). This may have made sense “back in the day”, but why does this separation continue to exist today?

In: 222

Answer 1

Officers are given preference because they are more highly educated than the enlisted within their service. Also, treating an officer with disrespect can and often does incite the enlisted to not give a damn.

There is a statement, Rank has it’s privileges. Officers are individuals with a college education when entering the service or have been selected to be trained to be an officer within the military. This means that they have a greater trust of the commanding officers.

The enlisted are the worker ants of the military. They do the hard labor, such as repairs, maintenance, defense and upkeep. Sergeants, also called non-comitioned officers (NCO’s) are the enlisted that take the orders from officers and make sure they are followed and completed.