It's funny how times change. In the old days I would just write something, and to hell with you if you didn't like it, get on my level. But there's that whole 'getting old' thing that changes it all. A half dozen arguments with the entirety of ACE, Infantry, and smatterings of other sections, it starts to make you think about not pissing everyone off all the time. Politics start to enter your mind. So it took me a couple days to settle on what exactly I was going to make my first post on.
Getting old sucks. I hate politics. This is my blog! But still not going to piss anyone off... yet.
My first three posts are going to be an example of pretty much everything you're going to see here: A clarification, an idea, and finally a rant. We'll save the last two as special treats for later. Today I'm gonna take the time to explain... the Chain of Command. Because this seems to be confusing for too many people.
Getting old sucks. I hate politics. This is my blog! But still not going to piss anyone off... yet.
My first three posts are going to be an example of pretty much everything you're going to see here: A clarification, an idea, and finally a rant. We'll save the last two as special treats for later. Today I'm gonna take the time to explain... the Chain of Command. Because this seems to be confusing for too many people.
In some areas I can see the confusion. There are some places where this could be excused, for example ACE is in flux and a bit of its own beast, and some people probably don't know that the armored sections report directly to MEU HQ. But I would hope that fire teams know their Chain of Command... unfortunately there were a few responses on the surveys that said people didn't know it. It brings two questions: Is the CoC being taught in RCT/SOI (if it is maybe this person wasn't just listening)? Or did the person think the question referred to knowing specifically who those people were? But I digress.
I'm going to break this down into each individual section for the flow of the Chain of Command, since each section has their own twist. Underneath those I'm going to detail HOW the Chain of Command works, since that is the biggest points of confusion.
Rifle Platoon
Rifle Platoons are probably the absolutely most straight forward CoC out there. Which is good, because this is the largest section, and almost everything is based out of this section. And for those of you who are gonna whine 'Oh all they care about is infantry'.. first of all you're 100% wrong, you're just pissed because we didn't acquiesce to something you requested, matter of fact go ask Major Drumheller or SgtMaj Benevento one day how I used to fight the entirety of Gambler. Second of all, this unit IS infantry-centric, and that is what you sign up for, because that is our doctrine, and USMC doctrine.
I'm getting off topic again. Like I said the CoC of Infantry is simple:
Fire Team Member
|
V
Fire Team Leader
|
V
Squad Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
Company HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
'HQ' is a generic term that basically means.. either the Platoon Commander or Platoon Sergeant (not the RTO), Company CO/XO or Company First Sergeant, and MEU CO/XO or Sergeant Major. The specifics of who you're sending the issue to depends on a few factors including what the issue is about, which person handles specific responsibilities (for instance the senior enlisted might handle discipline issues while the XO handles procedure issues, and the CO handles tactical/strategic issues; it defers in each HQ depending on people's strengths), and sometimes simply upon who is available. It's best to know who handles what in the sections above you, but we'll go over this more in the HOW the Chain works section.
Weapons Platoon
While Weapons is where it starts getting a little bit more complicated, it's still just a straight forward as the Rifle Platoon. The only reason Weapons becomes complicated is because the senior Team Leader is also the Squad Leader.
Team Member
|
V
Team Leader
|
V
Squad Leader
|
V
Section Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
Company HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
Weapons also gets a little complicated in the same way that corpsmen do.. in operations the Weapons teams often get attached to the Rifle squads. In these cases those teams report directly to the squad leader that they are attached to. By detaching the teams from their platoon, the CoC of Weapons loses control over those teams until the operation is concluded, and the Squad Leaders have operational control. If Weapons Platoon is tasked only in support, and in thus operating as an independent entity (in conjunction with the Rifle Platoon) then the Weapons CoC retains their control.
Corpsman
Corpsmen are probably the most complicated section of the CoC, because they have two distinct structures: In operations, and out of operations.
-Out of Game
Out of operations the corpsmen follow their set structure:
Squad/Section Corpsman
|
V
Platoon Corpsman
|
V
Company Corpsman
|
V
Chief Corpsman
|
V
MEU HQ
The Company Corpsman is called the 'Senior Corpsman'. In Echo Company this is (currently) HM1(FMF) Malibu. In Foxtrot Company this is HMC(FMF) Calais. The Chief Corpsman is the senior of those two company corpsman, in this case HMC(FMF) Calais. Each Senior Corpsman is in charge of the corpsman in their company, while the Chief Corpsman is administratively in charge of everyone. The Chief Corpsman also reports directly to MEU HQ for administrative and corpsman-specific issues. It gets a little convoluted, though, whether each corpsman reports directly to the leader of the section they're attached to. It's a slightly complicated thing to answer but you can think of it like this: If it deals with corpsman-specific issues, use the Corpsman CoC. If it deals with how you work with your section, report to the person you're attached to. If you're not sure, use the Corpsman CoC, and if you need to talk to your attached then they will redirect you.
-In Game
Now we get to the point of contention... In Operations the corpsman report directly to the leader of the section their attached to. So a Squad/Section Corpsman is directly controlled by that Squad or Section Leader. A platoon corpsman is directly controlled by the platoon commander, though he has a bit more freedom of movement in order to respond to heavy casualty areas (in coordination with the platoon commander). The platoon corpsman, and even company corpsman, are nominally in charge of the lower level corpsman, insofar as that while corpsmen may be moved from one squad to support a mass casualty situation on the fly, this must be routed through the infantry chain of command. A platoon corpsman cannot take a squad's corpsman without the approval of the infantry CoC. Corpsman are attached at this point, and lose their autonomy. And if that squad is engaged, there's a 99.99% chance their corpsman is not going to be leaving.
Tanks
Ahhh, back to simplicity. You want the most simple Chain of all? Welcome to tanks. A simple life of directness, 120mm Boom Stick, and the crushing of squishies beneath treads. Tankers... this is your Chain:
Tank Crewman
|
V
Tank Commander
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
That's it! No, I'm not kidding. No hidden tricks. Tankers.. that's all you've got. Now, this does get convoluted in operations because you can work three ways: Attached to the Company, attached to the Platoon, or autonomous. When attached to the Company, the Task Force Commander is in charge of your movements. When attached to the Platoon, the Platoon Commander is in charge of your movements. And when autonomous... the Task Force Commander is still in charge of your movements, but it's less controlled.
AAV
AAV, you are almost as simple as tanks. But you get one extra step.. that funny little Section Leader who's in charge of your little troops of Amtracks.
AAV Crewman
|
V
Crew Chief
|
V
Section Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
For Section 1, though, your section leader is the Platoon Commander himself, and Section 2, your section leader is the Platoon Sergeant. This is perfectly fine. If you're having an issue in your section, you can go directly to them. It's not skipping any part of the chain, it's following it exactly.
Just like tanks, though, your operational CoC can change. You can be attached in three ways: Attached to the platoon, attached to the company, and autonomous. Attached to the platoon, the platoon commander dictates your movements. Attached to the company, the Task Force Commander dictates your movements. Autonomous... probably will not happen, because it's a transportation section, but it could and in those situations the Task Force Commander is still in charge of your movements, but less controlling.
LAR
We're going to stick with simplicity before we tackle a crazy beast. LAR is still very straight forward, but because they have the infantry and vehicle teams, there's two different structures, really.
Scout Team Member Vehicle Crewman
| |
V V
Team Leader Vehicle Commander (Squad Leader)
| |
V V
Squad Leader (Veh Com) Platoon HQ
| |
V V
Platoon HQ MEU HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
A little different, but not too hard to follow. If you're in a vehicle, you go right to your Vehicle Commander. If you're in the Scout Team, you go right to your team leader, who then reports to the Vehicle Commander who also runs the scout team.
Like AAVs and Tanks, LAR can be attached in three ways: Attached to the Platoon, attached to the Company, and autonomous. When attached to the Platoon, the platoon commander directs your movements. When attached to the Company, the Task Force Commander directs your movements. And when autonomous, the Task Force Commander directs your movements, but with less control.
Force Recon
No, this isn't the beast. But Force Recon is their own mystery. I'm not even going to tell your their Chain of Command because it's so Super Secret Squirrel Classified, but suffice to say that their Platoon HQ reports directly to MEU HQ...
Or do they?
ACE
ACE.
ACE, ACE, ACE.
You're complicated. You're mystique. You're highly qualified and under used. How can we even describe you?
ACE Chain of Command is probably the craziest structure out there, because they have their own school inside. The school has its own separate CoC, even though the students in it attend the Detachment Training in their declared Detachment, but are not a part of that Detachment... complicated enough?
Let me draw it out.
Flight School
Student Pilot
|
V
Class Instructor
|
V
Operations Officer
|
V
ACE HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
Students should be attending the training for the Detachment they intend to go to, but they are not a member of that Detachment until they graduate Flight School and report in. While in that training, however, they are under the command of the Detachment Commander.
Detachment Pilot
Co-Pilot/WSO
|
V
Aircraft Commander (two-seater aircraft)
|
V
Element Leader (where applicable)
|
V
Detachment Commander
|
V
Senior Detachment Commander (Gunfighter only)
|
V
ACE HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
See all those asterisks? Yeah. Told you it was complicated. Let me break it down:
-Aircraft Commander: The aircraft commander is the person personally responsible for the operation of the individual aircraft. For one-seater aircraft like the F-35, the Pilot himself is the Aircraft Commander, for all intents and purposes.
-Element Leader: Not all detachments have Element Leaders (three-aircraft detachments such as the Hueys and, currently, MV-22s will not have element leaders). Elements are as little as two aircraft, and the element leader is the person responsible for the coordination of all aircraft within his element. He takes the load from the Detachment Commander, who not only has to coordinate and be in charge of all of the aircraft, but is responsible for training the SNAs in his detachment, and is the person responsible for the aircraft on his server, operationally, since usually no more than two aircraft from a Detachment are assigned per server
-Senior Detachment Commander: This only applies in Gunfighter. Because the Detachment operates two separate aircraft, each set of aircraft has their own detachment commander, responsible for those sets (one commander for Hueys, one commander for Cobras). The senior of those two commanders is the Senior Detachment Commander, and is responsible for Gunfighters as a whole.
Recruit Training/School of Infantry
I figured I would cover this section, even though probably no one from these is going to read this, nor will it probably ever be needed. But there does come the occasional confusion of what is going on in the CoC of people in training still. While you're not technically part of the unit (this only happens when you complete SOI, when you receive your 15th tags and are assigned a 15th ID), you are still treated like one (for the most part) and have a CoC.
Student
|
V
Instructor
|
V
Chief Instructor
|
V
Training Chief
|
V
MEU HQ
Your instructor is, simply put, the person in charge of your class. The Chief Instructor is the person in charge of that specific battalion (Recruit Training, ITB, MCT). The Training Chief is responsible for all three of those battalions, usually just getting new instructors and handling any major issues with students.
So hopefully we all know WHAT and WHO our Chain of Command is, now let's examine HOW it works.
HOW the Chain of Command Works
In theory the Chain of Command is very straight forward. In practice, in can get convoluted, especially with the new implementation of the Counselors. There are simple steps:
1) Fellow team members. Do you have a question about how something works, how to do something, etc? Ask your fellow team members first. They will probably know and this won't pester your leadership. It will give you trust in your team members, and their trust in you that you know what's going on, because hell they just told you.
2) Team Leader. Of course in other sections this is your Vehicle Commander or Aircraft Commander. The person in charge of your little team of guys. Your team didn't know? Ask them. Have an issue? Bring it up to them. Have an idea for the unit? Send it to them. They will (should) perform their due diligence and address it, or send it up.
3) Squad Leader. Yes, I am mostly following the infantry examples here, but trust me it's far more simpler this way. Other sections can follow along with their chart. Squad Leaders (or Section Leaders/Detachment Commanders) are where you should really start seeing the meat. Team leaders should be the people dealing with them primarily, however. When a team member should talk to a squad leader will be dealt with below. But the primary interaction here should be team leaders, up and down the chain.
4) Platoon HQ. Most issues should stop here. Platoon HQs deal directly with their squad leaders to resolve issues and move them up and down the chain. Who specifically to deal with from here becomes a bit more. Typically the Platoon Sergeant deals with all of the discipline or administrative issues, and the Platoon Commander deals with all major issues and tactical employment. This isn't always the case though. RTOs are not included here.
5) Company HQ. A lot of things will originate from here down the chain, usually dictating the operation of the company as a whole. They will primarily be dealing with the platoon HQ personnel. Who specifically to deal with here depends on each person's responsibility, and it's best to understand who deals with what. First Sergeants typically deal with morale and discipline, and are responsible for the enlisted members. Company XOs typically deal with administration and are responsible for the officers. Company COs typically direct and oversee, and deal with major issues, and deal with the strategic employment. This is a general idea though, and will differ in cases.
6) MEU HQ. If you're up here then someone is in some major shit. We typically deal with Company HQs or ACE HQ, or attachment HQs (AAVs, Tanks, LAR, FORECON). Some people call this a 'clique'. This is far from the truth. Are we more comfortable with these people? Yes. But aren't you more comfortable with your direction interactions in your CoC? Sometimes it's also a matter of preserving the integrity of the CoC. What would be the point if we just let you come in and deal with anything at all? This goes for all levels. If we break the integrity for you, we have to break it for everyone.
Skipping the Chain
Here we go. The part that no one knows. YES. It's possible to skip the chain of command to the next step. BUT. There are rules to doing this:
1) If bring an issue to the person directly above you and they do not resolve it, or take a long time in doing so (more than like... 72 hours, depending on the issue), then you may skip them and go to the next. MAKE SURE you wait a proper amount of time before going up, or you'll just be told to wait anyway.
2) If you do not feel comfortable with dealing with that person because it directly concerns them. For instance, if you feel your Team Leader is being biased against you and you cannot go straight to them and address it for fear of retribution, ridicule, or being ignored, then you may take the issue directly to your squad leader and explain it. They should be understanding of your fear and help you address the concern. If not, refer to option 1.
You can literally follow the chain all the way up to me, the MEU CO, but that better mean that every single person in your chain didn't resolve it, ignored you, or resolved it to your dissatisfaction. If it gets on my desk someone's ass is getting burned, whether that's you or the people below me.
Going Down the Chain
Going down the CoC is the same way. I pass things to my Company HQs, who go to their Platoon HQs, who go to Squad Leaders, etc. You are not allowed to skip anything going down, because now that means someone's leader doesn't know something.
There is one exception, and that is Disciplinary Actions. When administering a punishment, there is required to be at least one person from the individual's platoon or company HQ present. So if we are disciplining a team member or team leader, someone from Platoon HQ is required to be present, so that they are aware of what is going on. If we are disciplining a Platoon HQ personnel, someone from Company HQ is required to be present, so that they are aware of what is going on.
Conclusion
I think that just about covers it all, and finishes this long and confusing blog post. I hope this actually clears up who your Chain of Command is, and how it works. If you still have questions, please feel free to ask questions in this thread on the forums. Also provide feedback! Are you reading this? Am I spending three hours typing to the air? Too long, too complicated? Let me know what you think in the same thread.
I'm going to break this down into each individual section for the flow of the Chain of Command, since each section has their own twist. Underneath those I'm going to detail HOW the Chain of Command works, since that is the biggest points of confusion.
Rifle Platoon
Rifle Platoons are probably the absolutely most straight forward CoC out there. Which is good, because this is the largest section, and almost everything is based out of this section. And for those of you who are gonna whine 'Oh all they care about is infantry'.. first of all you're 100% wrong, you're just pissed because we didn't acquiesce to something you requested, matter of fact go ask Major Drumheller or SgtMaj Benevento one day how I used to fight the entirety of Gambler. Second of all, this unit IS infantry-centric, and that is what you sign up for, because that is our doctrine, and USMC doctrine.
I'm getting off topic again. Like I said the CoC of Infantry is simple:
Fire Team Member
|
V
Fire Team Leader
|
V
Squad Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
Company HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
'HQ' is a generic term that basically means.. either the Platoon Commander or Platoon Sergeant (not the RTO), Company CO/XO or Company First Sergeant, and MEU CO/XO or Sergeant Major. The specifics of who you're sending the issue to depends on a few factors including what the issue is about, which person handles specific responsibilities (for instance the senior enlisted might handle discipline issues while the XO handles procedure issues, and the CO handles tactical/strategic issues; it defers in each HQ depending on people's strengths), and sometimes simply upon who is available. It's best to know who handles what in the sections above you, but we'll go over this more in the HOW the Chain works section.
Weapons Platoon
While Weapons is where it starts getting a little bit more complicated, it's still just a straight forward as the Rifle Platoon. The only reason Weapons becomes complicated is because the senior Team Leader is also the Squad Leader.
Team Member
|
V
Team Leader
|
V
Squad Leader
|
V
Section Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
Company HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
Weapons also gets a little complicated in the same way that corpsmen do.. in operations the Weapons teams often get attached to the Rifle squads. In these cases those teams report directly to the squad leader that they are attached to. By detaching the teams from their platoon, the CoC of Weapons loses control over those teams until the operation is concluded, and the Squad Leaders have operational control. If Weapons Platoon is tasked only in support, and in thus operating as an independent entity (in conjunction with the Rifle Platoon) then the Weapons CoC retains their control.
Corpsman
Corpsmen are probably the most complicated section of the CoC, because they have two distinct structures: In operations, and out of operations.
-Out of Game
Out of operations the corpsmen follow their set structure:
Squad/Section Corpsman
|
V
Platoon Corpsman
|
V
Company Corpsman
|
V
Chief Corpsman
|
V
MEU HQ
The Company Corpsman is called the 'Senior Corpsman'. In Echo Company this is (currently) HM1(FMF) Malibu. In Foxtrot Company this is HMC(FMF) Calais. The Chief Corpsman is the senior of those two company corpsman, in this case HMC(FMF) Calais. Each Senior Corpsman is in charge of the corpsman in their company, while the Chief Corpsman is administratively in charge of everyone. The Chief Corpsman also reports directly to MEU HQ for administrative and corpsman-specific issues. It gets a little convoluted, though, whether each corpsman reports directly to the leader of the section they're attached to. It's a slightly complicated thing to answer but you can think of it like this: If it deals with corpsman-specific issues, use the Corpsman CoC. If it deals with how you work with your section, report to the person you're attached to. If you're not sure, use the Corpsman CoC, and if you need to talk to your attached then they will redirect you.
-In Game
Now we get to the point of contention... In Operations the corpsman report directly to the leader of the section their attached to. So a Squad/Section Corpsman is directly controlled by that Squad or Section Leader. A platoon corpsman is directly controlled by the platoon commander, though he has a bit more freedom of movement in order to respond to heavy casualty areas (in coordination with the platoon commander). The platoon corpsman, and even company corpsman, are nominally in charge of the lower level corpsman, insofar as that while corpsmen may be moved from one squad to support a mass casualty situation on the fly, this must be routed through the infantry chain of command. A platoon corpsman cannot take a squad's corpsman without the approval of the infantry CoC. Corpsman are attached at this point, and lose their autonomy. And if that squad is engaged, there's a 99.99% chance their corpsman is not going to be leaving.
Tanks
Ahhh, back to simplicity. You want the most simple Chain of all? Welcome to tanks. A simple life of directness, 120mm Boom Stick, and the crushing of squishies beneath treads. Tankers... this is your Chain:
Tank Crewman
|
V
Tank Commander
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
That's it! No, I'm not kidding. No hidden tricks. Tankers.. that's all you've got. Now, this does get convoluted in operations because you can work three ways: Attached to the Company, attached to the Platoon, or autonomous. When attached to the Company, the Task Force Commander is in charge of your movements. When attached to the Platoon, the Platoon Commander is in charge of your movements. And when autonomous... the Task Force Commander is still in charge of your movements, but it's less controlled.
AAV
AAV, you are almost as simple as tanks. But you get one extra step.. that funny little Section Leader who's in charge of your little troops of Amtracks.
AAV Crewman
|
V
Crew Chief
|
V
Section Leader
|
V
Platoon HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
For Section 1, though, your section leader is the Platoon Commander himself, and Section 2, your section leader is the Platoon Sergeant. This is perfectly fine. If you're having an issue in your section, you can go directly to them. It's not skipping any part of the chain, it's following it exactly.
Just like tanks, though, your operational CoC can change. You can be attached in three ways: Attached to the platoon, attached to the company, and autonomous. Attached to the platoon, the platoon commander dictates your movements. Attached to the company, the Task Force Commander dictates your movements. Autonomous... probably will not happen, because it's a transportation section, but it could and in those situations the Task Force Commander is still in charge of your movements, but less controlling.
LAR
We're going to stick with simplicity before we tackle a crazy beast. LAR is still very straight forward, but because they have the infantry and vehicle teams, there's two different structures, really.
Scout Team Member Vehicle Crewman
| |
V V
Team Leader Vehicle Commander (Squad Leader)
| |
V V
Squad Leader (Veh Com) Platoon HQ
| |
V V
Platoon HQ MEU HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
A little different, but not too hard to follow. If you're in a vehicle, you go right to your Vehicle Commander. If you're in the Scout Team, you go right to your team leader, who then reports to the Vehicle Commander who also runs the scout team.
Like AAVs and Tanks, LAR can be attached in three ways: Attached to the Platoon, attached to the Company, and autonomous. When attached to the Platoon, the platoon commander directs your movements. When attached to the Company, the Task Force Commander directs your movements. And when autonomous, the Task Force Commander directs your movements, but with less control.
Force Recon
No, this isn't the beast. But Force Recon is their own mystery. I'm not even going to tell your their Chain of Command because it's so Super Secret Squirrel Classified, but suffice to say that their Platoon HQ reports directly to MEU HQ...
Or do they?
ACE
ACE.
ACE, ACE, ACE.
You're complicated. You're mystique. You're highly qualified and under used. How can we even describe you?
ACE Chain of Command is probably the craziest structure out there, because they have their own school inside. The school has its own separate CoC, even though the students in it attend the Detachment Training in their declared Detachment, but are not a part of that Detachment... complicated enough?
Let me draw it out.
Flight School
Student Pilot
|
V
Class Instructor
|
V
Operations Officer
|
V
ACE HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
Students should be attending the training for the Detachment they intend to go to, but they are not a member of that Detachment until they graduate Flight School and report in. While in that training, however, they are under the command of the Detachment Commander.
Detachment Pilot
Co-Pilot/WSO
|
V
Aircraft Commander (two-seater aircraft)
|
V
Element Leader (where applicable)
|
V
Detachment Commander
|
V
Senior Detachment Commander (Gunfighter only)
|
V
ACE HQ
|
V
MEU HQ
See all those asterisks? Yeah. Told you it was complicated. Let me break it down:
-Aircraft Commander: The aircraft commander is the person personally responsible for the operation of the individual aircraft. For one-seater aircraft like the F-35, the Pilot himself is the Aircraft Commander, for all intents and purposes.
-Element Leader: Not all detachments have Element Leaders (three-aircraft detachments such as the Hueys and, currently, MV-22s will not have element leaders). Elements are as little as two aircraft, and the element leader is the person responsible for the coordination of all aircraft within his element. He takes the load from the Detachment Commander, who not only has to coordinate and be in charge of all of the aircraft, but is responsible for training the SNAs in his detachment, and is the person responsible for the aircraft on his server, operationally, since usually no more than two aircraft from a Detachment are assigned per server
-Senior Detachment Commander: This only applies in Gunfighter. Because the Detachment operates two separate aircraft, each set of aircraft has their own detachment commander, responsible for those sets (one commander for Hueys, one commander for Cobras). The senior of those two commanders is the Senior Detachment Commander, and is responsible for Gunfighters as a whole.
Recruit Training/School of Infantry
I figured I would cover this section, even though probably no one from these is going to read this, nor will it probably ever be needed. But there does come the occasional confusion of what is going on in the CoC of people in training still. While you're not technically part of the unit (this only happens when you complete SOI, when you receive your 15th tags and are assigned a 15th ID), you are still treated like one (for the most part) and have a CoC.
Student
|
V
Instructor
|
V
Chief Instructor
|
V
Training Chief
|
V
MEU HQ
Your instructor is, simply put, the person in charge of your class. The Chief Instructor is the person in charge of that specific battalion (Recruit Training, ITB, MCT). The Training Chief is responsible for all three of those battalions, usually just getting new instructors and handling any major issues with students.
So hopefully we all know WHAT and WHO our Chain of Command is, now let's examine HOW it works.
HOW the Chain of Command Works
In theory the Chain of Command is very straight forward. In practice, in can get convoluted, especially with the new implementation of the Counselors. There are simple steps:
1) Fellow team members. Do you have a question about how something works, how to do something, etc? Ask your fellow team members first. They will probably know and this won't pester your leadership. It will give you trust in your team members, and their trust in you that you know what's going on, because hell they just told you.
2) Team Leader. Of course in other sections this is your Vehicle Commander or Aircraft Commander. The person in charge of your little team of guys. Your team didn't know? Ask them. Have an issue? Bring it up to them. Have an idea for the unit? Send it to them. They will (should) perform their due diligence and address it, or send it up.
3) Squad Leader. Yes, I am mostly following the infantry examples here, but trust me it's far more simpler this way. Other sections can follow along with their chart. Squad Leaders (or Section Leaders/Detachment Commanders) are where you should really start seeing the meat. Team leaders should be the people dealing with them primarily, however. When a team member should talk to a squad leader will be dealt with below. But the primary interaction here should be team leaders, up and down the chain.
4) Platoon HQ. Most issues should stop here. Platoon HQs deal directly with their squad leaders to resolve issues and move them up and down the chain. Who specifically to deal with from here becomes a bit more. Typically the Platoon Sergeant deals with all of the discipline or administrative issues, and the Platoon Commander deals with all major issues and tactical employment. This isn't always the case though. RTOs are not included here.
5) Company HQ. A lot of things will originate from here down the chain, usually dictating the operation of the company as a whole. They will primarily be dealing with the platoon HQ personnel. Who specifically to deal with here depends on each person's responsibility, and it's best to understand who deals with what. First Sergeants typically deal with morale and discipline, and are responsible for the enlisted members. Company XOs typically deal with administration and are responsible for the officers. Company COs typically direct and oversee, and deal with major issues, and deal with the strategic employment. This is a general idea though, and will differ in cases.
6) MEU HQ. If you're up here then someone is in some major shit. We typically deal with Company HQs or ACE HQ, or attachment HQs (AAVs, Tanks, LAR, FORECON). Some people call this a 'clique'. This is far from the truth. Are we more comfortable with these people? Yes. But aren't you more comfortable with your direction interactions in your CoC? Sometimes it's also a matter of preserving the integrity of the CoC. What would be the point if we just let you come in and deal with anything at all? This goes for all levels. If we break the integrity for you, we have to break it for everyone.
Skipping the Chain
Here we go. The part that no one knows. YES. It's possible to skip the chain of command to the next step. BUT. There are rules to doing this:
1) If bring an issue to the person directly above you and they do not resolve it, or take a long time in doing so (more than like... 72 hours, depending on the issue), then you may skip them and go to the next. MAKE SURE you wait a proper amount of time before going up, or you'll just be told to wait anyway.
2) If you do not feel comfortable with dealing with that person because it directly concerns them. For instance, if you feel your Team Leader is being biased against you and you cannot go straight to them and address it for fear of retribution, ridicule, or being ignored, then you may take the issue directly to your squad leader and explain it. They should be understanding of your fear and help you address the concern. If not, refer to option 1.
You can literally follow the chain all the way up to me, the MEU CO, but that better mean that every single person in your chain didn't resolve it, ignored you, or resolved it to your dissatisfaction. If it gets on my desk someone's ass is getting burned, whether that's you or the people below me.
Going Down the Chain
Going down the CoC is the same way. I pass things to my Company HQs, who go to their Platoon HQs, who go to Squad Leaders, etc. You are not allowed to skip anything going down, because now that means someone's leader doesn't know something.
There is one exception, and that is Disciplinary Actions. When administering a punishment, there is required to be at least one person from the individual's platoon or company HQ present. So if we are disciplining a team member or team leader, someone from Platoon HQ is required to be present, so that they are aware of what is going on. If we are disciplining a Platoon HQ personnel, someone from Company HQ is required to be present, so that they are aware of what is going on.
Conclusion
I think that just about covers it all, and finishes this long and confusing blog post. I hope this actually clears up who your Chain of Command is, and how it works. If you still have questions, please feel free to ask questions in this thread on the forums. Also provide feedback! Are you reading this? Am I spending three hours typing to the air? Too long, too complicated? Let me know what you think in the same thread.