Purpose of this System

Our unit's rank system of Cadets, Enlisted, NCOs and Officers, is designed around our offline lives. Those MechWarriors with more time to give to the unit, who want to take on responsibilities and help as leaders of the entire unit, will often be asked to move into our Commissioned Officer ranks. Those who do not have as much time to give, but still want to help out in more limited roles, those are our NonCommissioned Officers of Sergeant rank and higher. People who can only show up once or twice a week and otherwise can't contribute to the unit usually stay in our Enlisted ranks, between Private and Corporal.

We are also perfectly fine with people moving back and forth between Commissioned and NCO ranks as their offline schedules change due to their jobs, personal lives, and other events and circumstances.

The duties of Officers and NCOs change over time as more rank is gained. For example, potential new members' abilities and character are guaged by all of our NCOs, but the final choice of acceptance or rejection is only made by the Regiment and Division Senior NCOs of the unit, who have been with us for quite some time and have shown time after time the willingness to take on these positions of responsibility. Another example is the way our Commissioned Officers lead combat drops, but only at higher levels of command (Captain and above) does responsibility and authority increase to include entire Regiments and the Division as a whole, after many months of proven service and dedication.

Including time-in-grade before Promotion Board Review. Note that this is required time-in-grade in Active status, and promotions do not happen automatically. Promotions must be earned and approved by Division Command Staff. The Officer/NonComm section is a table with the equivalent ranks next to each other to show seniority.

Division Command Staff Commanding General Lieutenant General Major General Brigadier General Colonel Sergeant Major

Commissioned Officers Major Captain Lieutenant Lieutenant, Junior Grade

Non Commissioned Officers Gunnery Sergeant Master Sergeant Sergeant First Class Staff Sergeant Sergeant

Enlisted Ranks Corporal Private Recruit / Retread

MT Rank System in Practice

This system is literally built from the ground up. When entering the Minnesota Tribe as a Cadet, as mentioned above, people are evaluated by the NCOs of the Minnesota Tribe. As they work upwards through Private and Corporal ranks, they are questioned about their dedication level and how much time they can give to help the unit. Depending on that, they are guided into the NCO ranks if they have a lot of commitments that will limit what they can do. Or they may be guided into Officer ranks if they have the time, ability, intelligence, and character to become one. Do not misunderstand, our NCOs are not looked down upon! We are very proud of our NCOs and protective of their welfare. In the structure of our unit, our NCOs would be Officers if it weren't for their other commitments, or they may not want to handle that much responsibility just yet.

Furthermore, in the militaries of the world we really live in, Officers are trained separately from NCOs in national War Colleges or from specially selected NCOs in an Officer Candidate Program. Other than combat itself, they are more or less segregated depending on the country's military doctrine, and socialization is either frowned upon or prohibited.

We have no such restrictions in the Minnesota Tribe.

MT members may feel free to request a change of status from NCO to Officer and back. Hanging out and chatting is encouraged, especially between leaders of entire combat teams (Officers) and individual combatants (NCOs and Enlisted personnel and Cadets). Every 4th of July we even get together in a certain place in the United States and hang out; this includes personnel from as far away as Australia! MT is a large and motley collection of friends that have become a family.