Babylon 5 revisited part 1

Hi, I thought I'd put together an overview of the ranks and
organisational structure of EarthForce (the military/
security branch of the Earth Alliance) in order to tie up
and explain some loose ends from previous posts on the
subject.

EarthForce consists of several Fleets of warships, plus bases,
support vessels and Fighter craft; an Infantry section,
consisting of Marines and Security Corps; Intelligence;
a Bioweapons division; a Research and Development Corps
plus, until 2264,the Psi Corps of Telepaths and Telekinetics.

The general ranking structure for the Navy is as follows:

[Flag officers]
Five-star General
Four-star General
Lieutenant-General
Major-General
Brigadier-General

[Regular commissioned officers]
Colonel
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant-Commander
Major
Lieutenant

[Junior/Non-commissioned officers]
Lieutenant (junior grade)
Ensign
Cadet
Sergeant

[enlisted]
Crewman (1st Class)
Crewman (2nd Class)

Considering any 'Air Force' and 'Navy' to be the same entity
(this is neither confirmed or denied in the show), then we can
consider six corps, each headed by a five-star General answerable
to the President of the Earth Alliance, plus Psi Corps
(nominally answerable to a civilian director but basically
functioning as a self-governing militia).

EarthForce Marines and EarthForce Security, at least, have the
same rank system as the Navy above the two junior
officer ranks, with enlisted ranks being the same except
Crewmen would obviously have the rank of Private.

I am assuming that cadet graduates enter the Navy at
rank Ensign and have the opportunity to transfer to EFMarines
or EFSecurity on promotion to Lieutenant. This may or may not
be the case for pilot graduates of 'Aerodrome'.

The ranks of 'Colonel' and 'Major' are used for consistency, as
Navy officers are shown having these ranks, while I am leaving
out ranks like 'Petty Officer' or 'Corporal' as these grades are
never mentioned.

To maintain consistency I have included Psi Corps.

In 'Crusade'a Lieutenant Matheson is the First Officer.
Matheson was formerly of Psi Corps, being a telepath who were
previously barred from serving in EarthForce in an ordinary capacity.
When this regulation ended, Matheson joined EarthForce and soon became Captain Matthew Gideon's First Officer.

There would not normally be enough time for Matheson to start basic
training, attend the EF officer academy and be promoted between 2264
and 2267 so he, presumably, would have had training consistent with
his Psi-rating which was probably P10 as he had some responsibilities,
was trained as a pilot but was certainly not a Psi-Cop (P12). This
would also imply that Psi-ratings are equivalent to EarhForce ranks,
P10 being a junior or full Lieutenant.

From this, nine enlisted ranks can be derived from those mentioned:
Private or Crewman-2nd Class
Private or Crewman (1st Class)
Sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Gunnery Sergeant
Master Sergeant
First Sergeant
Warrant Officer (2nd class)
Warrant Officer (1st class);
equivalent to the first nine P-ratings.

Again, these apply to the Navy, EFMarines and EFSecurity.

A Sergeant-Major Plug is mentioned but I am assuming the rank
this refers to is one of the Warrant Officer classes as
Commissioned-level Warrant Officers exist (i.e. Chief
Warrant Officer Michael Garibaldi). In the U.S army,
these are always referred to as Senior Warrant Officers,
i.e. above Chief Warrant Officer. I assume with Garibaldi's
case the title stays but the rank is higher.

The position of Warrant Officers with relation to the
regular commissioned officers in the chain-of-command
is probably as follows:

Master Sergeant
First Sergeant or Ensign
Warrant Officer (2nd class)
Warrant Officer (1st class) or Lieutenant (junior grade)
Chief Warrant Officer
Lieutenant
Senior Chief Warrant Officer
Major
Master Chief Warrant Officer or Lieutenant-Commander
Commander or Command Chief Warrant Officer

Psi Corps (assumed) higher organisational structure and roles
Lt-Gen,Major-Gen and Brigadier-Gen: Psi Corps 'Brass';
P10 to 12
Commander, Lt-Commander, Sergeant, Lieutenant: Psi-Cops; P12
(presumably)Sergeant and Lieutenant 'Bloodhound Units' and
Security; P11
Instructors/Administrators/Leaders; P10