Questions about U.S. Marine ranks and their duties.

[MrFun]

What are the typical duties/responsibilities of a commissioned brigadier general in the Marines?

What are the typical duties/responsibilities of a commissioned major in the Marines?


I tried finding answers using wiki, but it just lists the ranks and describes them without any information on duties that go with each rank. Then I tried googling, but couldn't find what I was looking for. For instance, I would type in the full question in Google: "What are the duties of a U.S. Marine brigadier general?" I would get links to bios of individuals of that rank instead of what I'm looking for.

Thanks for any serious and helpful answers.

[Hauldren Collider]

Each general does something different, obviously. They have different responsibilities. There aren't very many people in a given branch > O-6. Maybe a couple hundred?

[regexcellent]

Majors are staff *****es 99% of the time.

Brigadier Generals are also frequently staff, although at that rank I wouldn't call them *****es. They can also hold commands. I think they sometimes command MEBs.

I guess in the air wing, a USMC major might be a pilot.

[Felch]

I would get links to bios of individuals of that rank instead of what I'm looking for.

What did it say that those guys did? I mean, that's like a primary source document right there. If a bio says that some general is in charge of something, then that's the sort of thing a general would do.

[SlowwHand]

Captain is to Officers as Staff Sgt. is to Enlisted. A Lt. Colonel is about the same as a Master Sgt., relatively. You have officers over the hospital, supply, whatever.

[Felch]

For example, here's one I found:

While serving as Assistant Division Commander of 2d Marine Division, he was appointed to the rank of Brigadier General. He then deployed to Kosovo, where he served for one year as Chief of Staff for KFOR Headquarters in Pristina.

So serving as Chief of Staff for KFOR headquarters is the sort of thing a Marine BG does.

[The Mad Monk]

Missing Albie?

[MrFun]

What did it say that those guys did? I mean, that's like a primary source document right there. If a bio says that some general is in charge of something, then that's the sort of thing a general would do.

my bad

[DinoDoc]

Missing Albie?

He's going to be insufferable if he made it.

[SlowwHand]

I don't think that's something we have to worry about. In times of high unemployment, the services have a better pool to choose from.

[MrFun]

Captain is to Officers as Staff Sgt. is to Enlisted. A Lt. Colonel is about the same as a Master Sgt., relatively. You have officers over the hospital, supply, whatever.

Are there some brigadier generals who serve in those other areas (hospital, supply, etc.) rather than frontline command then?

Reg mentioned that majors are generally assigned staff duties/responsibilities. I take it that majors do not often see frontline action in any type of commanding position?

[SlowwHand]

It all depends on circumstances. The first thing that you need to realize is that for every combat troop, there are at least 10 support personnel. They're there, still available targets.
I was in Supply. I've read idiots here bad mouth Supply. No, no one ever wanted to cut a Supply line. Why did they give me that M-16?
And another thing, if someone served in time of no conflict, so what? They made themselves available. They served. I bring it up because that's a frequent topic of conversation in veteran organizations. I'm on the "a veteran is a veteran" side, and I have a service medal and an Outstanding Unit citation.

[Felch]

You're a veteran if the city where your unit was created had a barracks. Jeez, doesn't people know anything?

[Hauldren Collider]

A veteran is a veteran, even if all he does is push legal documents around as a JAG in the Pentagon for his entire career? Yeah, thanks for risking your life. Let me kiss your feet.

[regexcellent]

~1/2 of army folks are combat arms I think so slowwy's 10:1 figure is kinda off the mark.