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

Perhaps something to do with the Geneva Convention? I remember my (US) military ID always had a code/rating for Geneva Convention purposes if I became a POW. I _think_ there are guidelines to what you can assign to each category (as to labor or whatever), as well as it having chain of command purposes for the POWs. Totally going by memory here.