This is what happens when reporters and editors go to Ivy League and other universities that don’t allow ROTC and actively hate the military. This is the lede on an Associated Press story about the Ft. Hood terrorist trial:
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A soldier says he shot cell phone video during last year’s Fort Hood deadly rampage but that an officer ordered him to delete the footage.
This is the next paragraph:
Under cross examination Friday, Pfc. Lance Aviles has told a military court that he deleted the two videos at the direction of his NCO on the same day as the shooting, Nov. 5.
Anybody catch that? The lede says “an officer” ordered the soldier to delete his video. The second paragraph says he did it “at the direction of his NCO.”
Anyone with a passing knowledge of the military knows that an NCO is not an officer. An NCO is a sergeant, and even though NCO means non-commissioned officer, usually in the rank of E-5 and above, he is an enlisted man, NOT an officer. An officer is a 2nd lieutenant and above. He is commissioned as an officer by Congress. A warrant officer occupies the space between the enlisted man and the officer, though all warrant officers are addressed as “Sir,” just like commissioned officers.
Here’s something that all copy editors and reporters should commit to memory. It’s a guide to military rank.
