Sorting ME1 System Alliance characters by rank

[Dimitri Cosmos]

I need help with this one, I'm not sure where Ashley and Joker are in this hierarchy, also not sure about Dr. Chakwas, navigator Prestley and Engineer Adams. Let's focus on the Alliance ranks only, ignoring the special status of Spectres, ship captains and special representatives.

NAVY / MARINES

OFFICERS

• Admiral
  
  Steven Hacket, Tadius Ahern, David Anderson [ME2*]
  
  
• Rear Admiral / General
  
  Kahoku, Boris Mikhailovich, Hannah Shepard [ME3] (Shepard's mother)
  
  
• Captain / Major
  
  David Anderson [ME1], Kyle (the leader of distressed biotics), Dr. Karin Chakwas, Hannah Shepard [ME1] (Shepard's mother), Kaiden Alenko [ME3]
  
  
• Staff Commander
  
  Shepard, Kaiden Alenko [ME2]
  
  
• Lieutenant Commander
  
  Ashley Williams [ME3],
  
  
• Staff Lieutenant
  
  Kaiden Alenko [ME1], Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau, Engineer Greg Adams, Navigator Charlers Pressly
  
  
• 1st Lieutenant
  
  Marie Durand (the rachni mission), Ernesto Zabaleta (the traumatised veteran)
  
  
• 2nd Lieutenant

NON-COMMISIONED OFFICERS

• Operations Chief
  
  Ashley Willians [ME2]
  
  
• Gunnery Chief
  
  Ashley Williams [ME1]
  
  
• Service Chief
  
  
• Corporal
  
  Richard Jenkins, Toombs (the victim of Cerberus experiments)

ENLISTED

• Serviceman 1st Class / Corporal
  
  
• Serviceman 2nd Class / Private 1st Class
  
  
• Serviceman 3rd Class / Private 2nd Class
  
  Fredricks, Nirali Bhatia (the dead wife from Eden Prime)

As I was writing this I came accros this table https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1e43NvaEsRZscYsRh26kW2w1lbhNhcZVaSxjZMS2Yr6k/edit?usp=sharing. I guess it answers all my questions, although it's wrong about Joker's and Shepard's paygrade.

I'll keep this here for anyone interested anyway

[barzai]

The link is broken.

Aside from that, Bioware/EA created some anomalies in the Alliance rank system due to an incomplete understanding of the US rank system, on which the Alliance rank system appears to be based. Notably, they equate the rank of Navy Captain (O-6) with that of Marine Major (O-4).

In fairness to Bioware, I expect the conflation of ranks is owed to the unified rank structure that the Canadian Armed Forces adopted when the merged all of their military services into a single giant blob.

Of course it also doesn't help that in the US rank system the Navy and Marines use the titles of "Lieutenant" and "Captain" for completely different ranks.

Here's a quick summary of the officer ranks in the US (Navy/Marines):

O-1 Ensign / 2nd Lieutenant
O-2 Lieutenant Junior Grade / 1st Lieutenant
O-3 Lieutenant / Captain
O-4 Lieutenant Commander / Major
O-5 Commander / Lieutenant Colonel
O-6 Captain / Colonel
O-7 ("One-Star") Rear Admiral (Lower Half) / Brigadier General [1]
O-8 ("Two-Star") Rear Admiral (Upper Half) / Major General
O-9 ("Three-Star") Vice Admiral / Lieutenant General
O-10 ("Four-Star") Admiral / General
O-11 ("Five-Star") Fleet Admiral / General of the Army [2]

[1] For a brief period in the 1980s, Navy O-7s were designated as "Commodore" and in the other services as "Brigadier"
[2] Note that no one in the US has been promoted to O-11 since WW2

John "Blackjack" Pershing, the commanding officer of the AEF in WW1, was officially titled "General of the ARMIES" thus in theory placing him above a mere "General of the ARMY" so might be considered a "Six-Star."

George Washington, the commander of the Revolutionary forces, was voted the distinction of outranking all other general officers in US history by Congress, thus might be considered a "Seven-Star."

[Dimitri Cosmos]

I fixed the link. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Dethlane]

Always wondered why Shepard still has "commander" rank despite them literally saving the world on multiple occasions. Probably because they have no time for bureaucratic bs involved in promotions.

[S'bass thulu]

What barzai said. It was wild in the credits to see a canadian tank division cited.

[barzai]

Originally posted by Dimitri Cosmos:

I fixed the link. Thanks for pointing it out.

Eh, happy to help!

You'll observe that the spreadsheet highlights some of the anomalies I described earlier.

Also, with one or two exceptions, the spreadsheet assigns the rank of O-10 to all Navy flags, which suggests they are unaware that in day-to-day conversations, ALL flag rank officers are addressed as "Admiral" regardless of how much gold braid is weighing down their uniform.

Similarly, "Lieutenant Commander" and "Lieutenant Colonel" are seldom used as day-to-day forms of address, unless their owner is in serious trouble (as in, "Step into my office and close the door behind you, Lieutenant Commander!"). As with "Admiral," it is normally customary to address LCDR and LTC ranks as "Commander" and "Colonel" respectively.

Another oddity which I might have overlooked except that it's highlighted in Tali's loyalty mission is that the commanding officer of a vessel is customarily addressed as "Captain" regardless of actual rank. In such instances the nomenclature is being used as a title rather than as a rank designator.

The underlying rationale--apart from tradition--is that there is only ONE Captain on board ship, although there can be multiple ranks of all sorts. Indeed I believe at one time a Marine Captain would be given a "courtesy promotion" to Major while serving on shipboard in order to avoid any possible confusion.

But when Shep boards the Quarian ship, the Quarian skipper addresses him as "Captain Shepard," giving him the courtesy due a commanding officer, and--for reasons known only to the devs--Shep corrects him by saying "It's Commander."

Anyhow...I assume by now I've reached or exceeded your limit on the minutiae of military courtesies!

[barzai]

Originally posted by Dethlane:

Always wondered why Shepard still has "commander" rank despite them literally saving the world on multiple occasions. Probably because they have no time for bureaucratic bs involved in promotions.

I actually remember a science-fiction novel in which an American Colonel and his regiment--from the Union Army--find themselves translated to an alien planet with other people from other time periods and winds up overthrowing the aliens who use them as slaves.

There are many generals in the novel and its sequels, but the Colonel refuses to accept the title of general, on the grounds that there is no competent authority capable of promoting him into it.

The long-term effect is that the Colonel is the only colonel, but he's surrounded by generals who defer to his leadership, since he's the de facto leader of the anti-alien effort. Thus "Colonel" becomes the highest rank by default, usurping the rank of general!

[Cass]

Originally posted by Dethlane:

Always wondered why Shepard still has "commander" rank despite them literally saving the world on multiple occasions. Probably because they have no time for bureaucratic bs involved in promotions.

Shepard is kind of in a unique position thanks to their Spectre status. They pretty much exist outside the usual chain of command. And after the Battle of the Citadel Shepard was deliberately sidelined because Reaper talk was inconvenient to the powers-that-be.

Also Shepard was never in a position for a promotion from their death at the start of ME2 to their reinstatement at the start of ME3, and at that point nobody had time for bureaucratic bs let alone Shepard.