Haissan Neiman said:
Oh there have to be Officer Grade ODSTs... at least at the Company Grade level Ie Lieutenants and Captains. Maybe there have yet to be any made a story about... Lieutenants lead platoons...
I'd assume it's much like the current military: You have senior-ranking enlisted leading each flight within a squadron (sorry for my air force terminology, it's my background, so it's what i'm most familiar with), with their superiors being junior officers who do few, if any actual jumps. They run the tactics and logistics of each mission rather than the actual boots-on-dirt work.
Any type of mid-grade to senior officer leadership WOULD be at the platoon level, but ODSTs are the special forces, a small group attached to a larger force, most likely comprised of normal marines. Those mid to senior officers would be not only in charge of the 15-20 ODSTs, but also the 90-something marines, the 10 engineers, 5 medics, etc, etc.
Basically, what I'm getting at is: Yes, it's entirely possible to have a mid to senior ranked officer with ODST training, BUT they probably aren't still going to be attached to specific ODST command structure, and they CERTAINLY aren't going to be making combat drops. Something no one outside the military (again I'm using my experience in the USAF for this generalization) really realizes is that personnel, enlisted or officer, change jobs quite frequently, sometimes of their own choice, sometimes they're "volun-told" to fill the needs of the service. Examples: My Training Instructor in Basic used to be in the Logistics Corps as a chef, he volunteered for TI duty simply for a career change, he went from supervising 20-something Airmen in his flight to being on the bottom rung of the ladder. The commander of my flight @ technical school was trained as a radio officer, in charge of a listening station in England. He got volun-told to change assignments and become a Training Commander for a flight of Air Traffic Control (my specialty) and Airfield Operations students, something he had ZERO experience in, because the Training Wing needed a Captain-ranked (O3) officer who was trainer-qualified to fill a slot, and he fit the bill. My commander at my last assignment was an EXTREME rarity in the service, he was a 15-year LtCol (O5) with all 15 years of experience as an Airfield Officer, meaning he was trained from day 1 on Air Traffic Control and Airfield Operations Procedures. The commander before that used to be a Tanker Pilot and the one before that used to be a Medical Officer.
Long-winded explanation aside, here's how I would lay out the command structure for the Division:
(Stolen from Halopedia, pertinent links in RED(red stuff is the important gist of my explanation, the blue is so you can follow the force structure breakdown))
-Unified Earth Government
----United Nations
--------United Nations Space Command
------------Central Command (CENTCOM)
----------------High Command (HIGHCOM)
--------------------UNSC Security Committee
--------------------UNSC Security Council
------------------------United Nations Space Command Defense Force
----------------------------UNSC Navy
--------------------------------Naval Special Warfare
------------------------------------SPARTAN II Project
------------------------------------SPARTAN III Project
--------------------------------Office of Naval Intelligence
----------------------------UNSC Marine Corps
--------------------------------Marine Special Operations Command (UNSCMSOC)
------------------------------------Orbital Drop Shock Troopers
----------------------------------------ODST Regiment(s), Led by Mid to Senior Grade Marine Officers, possibly from ODST background.
--------------------------------------------ODST Platoons, Led by Junior to Mid-Grade Marine Officers, probably from ODST background.
------------------------------------------------ODST Squads, Led by Mid to Senior-Grade Marine NCOs (Enlisted), current ODST assignment (duh).
----------------------------UNSC Army
--------------------------------Colonial Militia
----------------------------UNSC Air Force
So, to actually add numbers to that, and work in the opposite direction that gives us:
5 ODST troopers of junior to mid-grade enlisted rank, led by a mid to senior-rank enlisted. Leader's focus is the well-being of each individual trooper and the cohesion of the squad.
5 Squads to a platoon, led by a junior to mid-grade officer. However, squads are attached to standard Marine Platoons as auxiliaries for day-to-day combat operations. Leader's focus is the efficiency and tactical effectiveness of each squad.
4 Platoons to a Regiment, led by a mid to senior-grade officer. Leader's focus is the proper deployment of each platoon to provide the combat result desired.
So for each regiment, using my rough numbers, that gives us 100 active ODSTs with 5-10 intermediate supervisors who may or may not have ODST training and 5-10 over-arching superiors who possibly do not have ODST training.
I'm exhausted and rambling, so I'll get to my final point: You don't need someone intimately familiar with ODST tactics to lead a 100-200 person regiment, they just have to know how their assigned tactical assets will function in combat, something ANY combat officer would be trained in. Likewise, even at the lower levels, you don't REQUIRE full ODST training, look @ Dare, she's an ONI Captain, who got enough drop training to be attached to an ODST squad for a mission. I highly doubt she went through the same training Buck or Dutch did. To lead a platoon of soldiers, at minimum all you need is an officer who can handle a weapon decently and has a head for tactics. His sub commanders and squad leaders will put whatever plan he devises into action to achieve the required result.
THAT'S WHY THERE'S A RANK STRUCTURE. There is no way even the best general could keep track of every squad in every platoon in every regiment in a battlefield situation. Each level of command keeps track of it's own thing, and it all filters down.
