About Face

To those who noticed and wondered about the change in rank between the movies Tanks a Million and About Face, the actual reason is more than likely a Hollywood flub but there is an actual reason if they had a military adviser. The rank system at the time of Tanks was the 1920 War Dept regulation, which called for seven enlisted grades 1st grade, was Master Sgt. 7th grade Private. the First Sargent was a working title only and was grade 6 three up 2 down with diamond. Doubleday had this rank as he took charge of the Drill Company with Ames being the Second Sargent with only three chevrons, The staff sergeant was a staff position only and did not have active command of troops. With the change of regulations in 1942 the rank structure changed to 1st Sgt. being 3 up 3 down with diamond and moved from grade 2 to grade 1. The staff sergeant became the sergeant in charge of troops below the Tech Sgt. Basically the 1SG was the equal of today's Sgt. Major, The Technical SGT took over the duties of the Staff SGT and that is why Doubleday lost a chevron. The Tech Sgt. would become SGT 1st Class in 1948 and SGT Major would be seen in 1958 with the creation of the current e-grade system.