Rank and appointment

I'd like to have a word with the CBC for a moment. Any other journalists are welcome to listen in if they'd like.

There's a difference between rank and appointment in the CF. So, for example, a soldier you hear called RSM (which stands for Regimental Sergeant Major) is also going to be referred to as a Chief Warrant Officer. Why? Because RSM is an appointment, a job, a place in an organization chart, while Chief Warrant Officer is a rank that the soldier holds regardless of which position he or she happens to be slotted into at the moment.

You'll also hear a Lieutenant (pronounced Leftenant) referred to in some instances as a Platoon Commander. The former is a rank, the latter an appointment. Even more confusing is when you get a Commander who is called Captain, since both are positions and both are ranks (in this case, Commander is the rank, and Captain the position - it just means he's in charge of the ship).

Rank is indicated by markings on the sleeve, shoulder, or depending on the uniform, an epaulette on the chest. Broad categories of rank (junior, senior, and general officers) are also indicated on some forms of headdress. Position is rarely indicated by visible markings, although positions like Aide-de-Camp and Chief Warrant Officer command appointments are among the few exceptions to that rule. Reference to the charts is encouraged until you get the hang of things, especially since Navy ranks are different than Army and Air Force ranks.

Take note of the proper abbreviations for ranks, too - the short form of Lieutenant-General, for example is LGen, not Lt.-Gen. Furthermore, I'd ask you to remember that there's no period in any rank abbreviation in the CF - never a period.

Not one of the Canadian media outlets gets this sort of minutia right all the time, but I've singled out the CBC for this little lecture because they've actually managed to get it right in one story, and get it wrong in another, a day apart, and amazingly with the same soldier.

Col Ryan Jestin is the commander of CFB Gagetown, a major army base in New Brunswick. Which, just to make sure you're following along, means that his rank is Colonel while his appointment is Base Commander.

In this article about his impending retirement, the CBC writer gets it correct:

The man who's been base commander at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick for the past three years is retiring. Col. Ryan Jestin will trade his uniform for civilian clothes and a job with the city of Calgary.

Yet in this one about a peregrine falcon nest discovered on the base, they get it horribly wrong:

CFB Gagetown base Cmdr. Ryan Jestin said the military will do what it can to protect the nest.

Egad, where to begin. By capitalizing and abbreviating it, these four letters are made to look like the rank of Commander. But the abbreviation for Commander is actualy Cdr, while the abbreviation for Commodore is Cmdre - Cmdr is a completely fabricated short form. And if that wasn't confusing enough, since both Cdr and Cmdre are naval ranks and our base commander Col Jestin is in fact an army officer, he could be neither. I find it interesting that Commodore would be the naval equivalent of the next promotion for a Colonel (BGen), while Commander would be the naval equivalent of the rank he held before his last promotion (LCol), but that's just coincidence.

Why, as journalists, should you care about admittedly arcane details such as rank and appointment, you may ask?

Because if you can screw up something that's this easy to verify, it makes a reader like me wonder which other details in your story you're getting wrong, that's why.

And at the end of the day, trust that you're telling your audience the truth is all you've got to trade on. So figure this stuff out, ladies and gents of the press.