>I disagree. Especially when you are at the bottom of the chain of command. Its too much to expect the average person to understand rank structure. Everyone is

>I disagree. Especially when you are at the bottom of the chain of command. Its too much to expect the average person to understand rank structure. Everyone is capable of understanding it, but almost nobody cares because civilian life doesn't often give you a good reason to care about military/government rank structure. Many people see an intimidating looking guy in a uniform and assume he's in charge of a lot of really important stuff. I was in the military for over a decade, yet to my wife, there were three ranks. Privates, Her Husband (Actually a Sergeant), and the mythical Officer/First Sergeant (Everyone higher ranking than myself would alternately be referred to as First Sergeant or my Commanding Officer, as in, the same person would be referred to as either one, depending on the conversation. I explained the differences to her a thousand times, but she, like many military wives, just didn't seem to care. Civilians care even less. Most people recognize that a general is the highest authority in the military, but that's about where it ends. You also have to consider the way that the media often likes to twist a person's words around. You might be speaking as a matter of opinion, but if a news station uses clever editing to make it sound like you are an important person who is declaring an official military position on a subject, it doesn't really matter that its not true, the damage is still done.