Doomguy's rank

[Maes]

What do you think it is? Was it ever mentioned explicitly in e.g. the Doom bible?

Certainly, in my latest fanfic I make him out to be a lowly Sergeant just promoted to Staff Sergeant, before of course being sent to Phobos and being demoted to...well, read the story ;-)

Doom 3 just calls him a "Marine" and I think you can even see your place at the very bottom of the organogramme, with Master Sgt. Kelly on top ;-)

[Krispy]

He's a marine. Errbody knows that.

[Vordakk]

Krispy said:

He's a marine. Errbody knows that.

He talking about RANK, not branch of service.

[Technician]

To the Doom novels!

EDIT: The books claim he's a corporal.

[Clonehunter]

I thought Doom 3 labeled him as a corporal too.

[Coopersville]

Corporal, and I don't know if he can get much higher with his 20-40 vision, though who knows what technology we'd have for that by 2145.

[printz]

How did the Eternity TC rank Flynn Taggart (the protagonist)? Also, John "Carnage" Petrovich, the other character. Maybe all the Doom fictions converge into a specific rank.

[Maes]

Well, I'd be surprised if he was still a Private or even a PFC, as even in the shittiest armies, professional soldiers then to get perked up a notch or two just to keep them on top when there are conscripts/short term volunteers around.

Then again he seems to be bossed around by pretty much everyone in Doom 3, so I'd be equally surprised if he was even a Sergeant.

A Corporal is indeed the perfect rank for such situations: high enough to make a long-term enlisted grunt or a special conscript (e.g. provosts) feel somewhat "better" than a simple private, but with little practical effect, as they get to do just about the same shitty chores.

[BaronOfStuff]

Probably a Corporal, although what with being told to 'secure the base perimeter' during the events prior to KDITD I wouldn't be surprised if he had been demoted to 'janitor'.

[kristus]

Maes said:

Well, I'd be surprised if he was still a Private or even a PFC, as even in the shittiest armies, professional soldiers then to get perked up a notch or two just to keep them on top when there are conscripts/short term volunteers around.

There are no conscripts in america.

[Maes]

kristus said:

There are no conscripts in america.

Yup, I know that, but there used to be until the Vietnam war at least, where they had to coexist with various types and classes of enlisted personnel.

Also, there are still branches of service (e.g. the National Guard) which are mostly staffed by volunteers, and I know from experience that perms/pros hate being outranked by temporary or shorter term staff, no matter if they are conscripts or volunteers. An easy solution is to "kick them up" a rank so that they always have de-facto seniority.

Other solutions are clearly separating conscript and enlisted ranks so that the former can never outrank the latter (the German army did this in WW II), or creating several classes of NCOs where equal ranks might still be separated by the bearer's status/type.

E.g. the Greek army currently has at least four types for the basic Sergeant rank, ordered by descending seniority: NCO College Sergeants, Long Term Volunteer Sergeants, Professional Soldier Sergeant, Conscript Sergeant, and the same holds for the lower rank of Corporal and the two higher ranks of Staff & Master Sergeant.

The rank of Conscript Sergeant is no longer assigned in recent years, exactly to avoid situations where a short-term conscript can boss around a professional with maybe 5-6 years of service. Of course, this was caused because there are a LOT of professional soldiers which attain Corporal rank after just a year of service, but can't become Sergeants with less than 7 years of service....

That didn't stop Reserve Officer ranks from being assigned though...let me tell you, that DOES piss off a 20-yo "veteran" who's still Staff Sergeant and will never be anything more than a Warrant Officer (upon discharge, ad honorem) ;-)