Officer Ranks and Accommodation
Officers in nearly every country of the world are segregated from the enlisted soldiers in many facets of military life. Facilities accommodating needs such as the mess hall, bunks and domiciles, and general recreation are separated between officers and enlisted personnel. This class system, historically correlated to socioeconomic status is focused on discouraging fraternization and encouraging professional and ethical relations between military personnel.
Officers do not routinely perform physical labor; they typically supervise enlisted soldiers/other ranks, either directly or via NCOs. Officers will and do perform physical labour when operationally required to do so, e.g. in combat, however it would be very unusual for an officer to perform physical labour in garrison.
Read more about this topic: Military Officers
Famous quotes containing the words officer and/or ranks:
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)