G.I. Joe Question - Rank

[Kitsune]

In the latest G.I. movie, I think I noted a problem
Roadblock is a Sergent Major and Lady Jaye is a First Lieutenant
His is suppose to be senior in rank but she is an officer and he is enlisted
Shouldn't she have been in charge?

[Black Admiral]

In the latest G.I. movie, I think I noted a problem
Roadblock is a Sergent Major and Lady Jaye is a First Lieutenant
His is suppose to be senior in rank but she is an officer and he is enlisted
Shouldn't she have been in charge?

It's a matter of experience; Roadblock is far more experienced than Jaye is, and would actually be senior to her in rank if not for the fact that he keeps dodging promotion (thus Duke telling him that if Roadblock loses their shooting contest, "You have to take your next promotion"). So, in the situation which is the level of fucked of the one Roadblock, Jaye and Flint (aka. Treebeard) have found themselves in, deferring to the greater experience RE survival in totally fucked situations.

[Kitsune]

It's a matter of experience; Roadblock is far more experienced than Jaye is, and would actually be senior to her in rank if not for the fact that he keeps dodging promotion (thus Duke telling him that if Roadblock loses their shooting contest, "You have to take your next promotion"). So, in the situation which is the level of fucked of the one Roadblock, Jaye and Flint (aka. Treebeard) have found themselves in, deferring to the greater experience RE survival in totally fucked situations.

Is that really likely or is it more likely that the script writers screwed up. They do not know
There is a dynamic where a senior enlisted might really be in charge but they are great at figure heading the relatively junior officer.
As well, if she climbed through enlisted ranks which the story seem to argue, she would be pretty damn experienced too.
The actress would likely have been 29 years old when filming which means (using the actresses age) as much as 11 years service, about right for a mustang LT.

Still far better than the first movie, I grant that

[RogueIce]

She was intel IIRC and, considering the nature of their situation, more than likely deferred to Roadblock's greater field experience.

I mean sure she attacked the nuke facility with everyone else but Roadblock probably has way more experience than her and there was no point in standing on a formality that no longer mattered.

PS: Flint is usually a Warrant Officer, although they demoted him to Sergeant for this movie.

[FedRebel]

Still far better than the first movie, I grant that

The first movie's stinger should've been Duke being court martialed and sentenced to life in Leavenworth for his actions in the 'East Africa' backstory.

No way he'd be O-4 or O-5 (calls himself 'Captain' when arresting Cobra Commander/Rex, wears oak leaves in flashback) heading a NATO WMD security team, after "killing" Rex via incompetence.

*On sight of UNSECURED objective installation*
Duke: "I need an Airstrike"
Air Force: "ETA 5 minutes"
Duke: Rex, you got five minutes (only ~4) run in by yourself, find what we're here for and get out"
*Airstrike with Rex inside UNSECURED installation (Mindbender holding Rex in Bunker)*
Duke: "Nooooo! Your early!"

The only way the first half works is if Duke lied in his report about the East Africa op and lost a rank for losing Rex, but with Rex alive and a supervillain...Duke has to fess up.

[Block]

It's a matter of experience; Roadblock is far more experienced than Jaye is, and would actually be senior to her in rank if not for the fact that he keeps dodging promotion (thus Duke telling him that if Roadblock loses their shooting contest, "You have to take your next promotion"). So, in the situation which is the level of fucked of the one Roadblock, Jaye and Flint (aka. Treebeard) have found themselves in, deferring to the greater experience RE survival in totally fucked situations.

Is that really likely or is it more likely that the script writers screwed up. They do not know
There is a dynamic where a senior enlisted might really be in charge but they are great at figure heading the relatively junior officer.
As well, if she climbed through enlisted ranks which the story seem to argue, she would be pretty damn experienced too.
The actress would likely have been 29 years old when filming which means (using the actresses age) as much as 11 years service, about right for a mustang LT.

Still far better than the first movie, I grant that

I can tell you from experience, 1LTs don't tell a SGM what to do, pretty much ever.

[Marko Dash]

rule #2.

A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.

[Kitsune]

I can tell you from experience, 1LTs don't tell a SGM what to do, pretty much ever.

Including Mustangs? We tended to treat Mustangs a little different than a young silver bar

[Zwinmar]

Eh, my problem is the clusterfuck that is the Lt.'s uniform at the end. It's like an army uniform, I think, it has an EGA ....the one for the dress blue cover on her collar, the rest, no damn clue.

She is a Lieutenant, a Sergeant Major always out ranks and will get the ass chewing if the Lt screws up.

[RogueIce]

I put the uniform thing down as GI JOE being a super special unit/branch that seems to have originated from the Army, so they default to Army ASUs (or a lookalike, I don't recall exactly), but would have the markings of their parent service when applicable. Sort of like the dress uniform version of Navy FMF Corpsmen wearing Marine Charlies. Sure Marine ego would probably never let that happen IRL, but this is fiction so why not?

As far as rank, they were outlaws (and presumed dead) so military protocol hardly mattered at that point. Lady Jaye simply deferred to Roadblock's experience and that it was his contacts and so forth that they were using.