American Sniper - Boekje Pienter

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Rank is a funny concept in the Teams. It’s not disrespected exactly,
but it’s clearly not the full measure of the man.
In BUD/S, officers and enlisted are all treated the same: like shit.
Once you make it through and join the Teams, you’re a new guy.
Again, all new guys are treated the same: like shit.
Most officers take it fairly well, though obviously there are exceptions.
The truth is, the Teams are run by the senior enlisted. A guy
who’s a chief has twelve to sixteen years of experience. An officer joining
a platoon has far less, not just in SEALs but in the Navy as well.
Most of the time he just doesn’t know shit. Even an OIC might have
only four or five years’ experience.
That’s the way the system works. If he’s lucky, an officer might get
as many as three platoons; after that, he’s promoted to task unit commander
(or something similar) and no longer works directly in the
field. Even to get there, much of what he’s done has been admin work
and things like de-confliction (making sure a unit doesn’t get fired on
by another one). Those are important tasks, but they’re not quite the
same as hands-on combat. When it comes to door-kicking or setting
up a sniper hide, the officer’s experience generally doesn’t run too
deep.
There are exceptions, of course. I worked with some great officers
with good experience, but as a general rule, an officer’s knowledge of
down-and-dirty combat is just nowhere near the same as the guy with
many years of combat under his belt. I used to tease LT that when we
did a DA, he would be in the stack, ready to go in, not with a rifle but
his tactical computer.
Hazing helps remind everybody where the experience lies—and
who you better look to when the shit hits the fan. It also shows the