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>>If she was still a sergeant when she got it, it can't be higher than >>4th. If she was a field-grade (whatever that means) officer it's at >>least 4th; given the lack of red/blue (and her not being a general >>officer), it's not 2nd or 1st. > >Well, amusingly enough (to me, anyway), that fits too - I decided when >writing her OWaW bio that hers is Fourth Class, because it splits the >difference eligibility-wise between her NCO and junior officer days. > >Field officers are military middle managers - anyone ranking above a >company commander (who are usually captains in an army-ranks context) >and below a general officer. So, majors and colonels, basically. Mio >is a field-grade officer (her canonical rank, shōsa, is >variously translated as Major, Lieutenant Commander, or Squadron >Leader, depending on whether the translators are using army, navy, or >Anglophone air force ranks); Yoshika, even after receiving her >commission for meritorious service, is not. Again, depending on how >you choose to translate chūi, she's either a second >lieutenant, an ensign, or a pilot officer. > >(The translations I've seen are not consistent about this. >FUNimation's official subtitles call Mio "Major Sakamoto" in spite of >the fact that, since she's a naval officer, if you were going to >translate shōsa at all, the more appropriate translation would >be "lieutenant commander". Shirley Yeager, on the other hand, is a >captain in the Liberion Army Air Force, retranslated "taii" in the >original Japanese, but the subs render her rank as the confusingly >equivalent British RAF "flight lieutenant". By contrast, Gertrud >Barkhorn is also called "taii" in Japanese, but that gets rendered >into English as "captain" (the direct translation of the German >Hauptmann) - but they're the same rank. Meanwhile, >apparently taking a cue from this, the fansub of the movie I've seen >calls Mio a Squadron Leader. This, as noted in Liz Windsor's OWaW >bio, is also one of the puzzlingly named RAF ranks, and doesn't mean >she actually leads a squadron - in fact, it's RAF for Major. >Confused yet? :) > >--G. >-><- >Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod >Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ >zgryphon at that email service Google has >Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam. If you want confused, try being a writer for Battletech and trying to keep track of a dozen rank structures (Depending on the era I'm writing in).
:) Craig ---------------------------- IAMTW-Nominated Author Author of the Battletech Novels, Icons of War, Elements of Treason: Duty, Elements of Treason: Opportunity, and Elements of Treason: Honor Co-author of Four Outcast Ops novels -- African Firestorm, Red Ice, Watchlist, and Shadow Government. Author of the The Russia-Ukraine War Factbook (Vol 1) All-around nice guy! |