Herc, feel free to post up the Navy's particulars as well. If there are any Marines or Airmen out there that wish to share, please do.

The "normal" way the Army breaks down:

Soldier: one person
Team: 4-5 Soldiers
Squad: 12-25 Soldiers
Platoon (PLT): ~60 Soldiers
Company (CO): ~120-350 Soldiers, or
~4-7 platoons
Battalion (BN): ~2-8 companies
Brigade/Regiment (BDE/RGT): ~2-x BNs
Division (DIV): 3-5 BDEs, roughly 30,000 Soldiers
Corps/Army: 2-5 DIVs
Major Command (MACOM): 1-4 Corps or Armies
Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA): the Total Army, including the Reserves and *rallff!* National Guard

Cavalry:
Trooper
PLT
Troop
Squadron
BDE/RGT
...

Artillery (ARTY)
Soldier
PLT
Battery (BTY)
BN
...

Aviation
Soldier/Aviator
Flight (FLT)/PLT
CO
...

Special Forces
Soldier
Team
PLT
CO
BN
Group
...

Recruiting
Recruiter
(no squad-level echelon)
Station
CO
...

Bear in mind that these Soldier counts are not definitive. I have seen companies as small as 30 Soldiers, and as large as 350 Soldiers. My CO at FT Campbell, KY (C CO, 8 BN/101 AVN RGT, 101 ABN DIV (AASLT) was larger than 1.5 Infantry (INF) BNs at the time. (Hey, Redman, the BNs I'm talking about are 1st and 2nd Rakkasans). Also, SF follow their own rules. They are NORMALLY structured into teams of 12, but that can, and will, vary. By mission. Any further info on them, I'm probably gonna get a knock on the door.

We also have the following kinds of Divisions:
INF
Armor (AR)
Cavalry (CAV)
Airborne/Air Assault (ABN/AASLT)
Mountain
Mechanized (MECH)

Just because you're in one kind of Division does not determine what job you're gonna do. I've been AVN all my Army life, and some of my assignments have been to INF DIVs on one kind or another. 101 ABN DIV, 2 INF DIV, 3 INF DIV. It takes all kinds of MOSs (Military Occupational Specialties) to kill the bad guy or to level his neighborhood. The 11 series aint kickin in doors if they dont have bullets or food or water. Those supplies wont get any where if the vehicle dont work. Route security is gained by MPs, EOD, INF... and overwatched by AVN and Armor and INF and...so on and so on...

Any more questions? Hopefully they arent too specific, I'm willing to answer almost anything.

Navy
The Navy has two chains of command. One is Administrative which deals with all the day to day operations and how things are processed and records kept etc. This never changes it's always the same.
Operational Chain deals with mission stuff. Where you go who you shoot etc. This changes based on geographical location/mission.

Fleet All units are assigned to a handfull of fleets based on geographical region.

Battlegroup a variety of ships usually consisting of 1 carrier a couple of cruisers a few frigates a couple of submarines an amphib or two and a bunch of supply/oil ships

task force a small contigent of ships from a battle group.

For the Aviation side

Air Wings
a group of squadrons assigned to one commander
Shipboard wings (carrier guys) Usually contain two fighter squadrons, an attack squadron, anti submarine squadron, Airborne Early Warning.

Shore based wings are grouped by type of aircraft/mission
Patrol wing a group of anti submarine squadrons
Logistics wing (largest airwing in the Navy)comprised of all the logistics oriented Squadrons.

Squadron a unit assigned a type of aircraft or types of aircraft used to perform a mission. Numbers of aircraft vary from squadron to squadron.

Inside a squadron/ship all numbers depend on the size of the ship/squadron. Remember Carriers have 3,000 personell just to run the ship and then you have an aditional 2,000 people to maintain and fly the airplanes.
Departments assigned by types of jobs
Divisions specialized parts of departments
work centers specialized parts of divisions

Supply Corps handles all the logistics for all divisions

Medical Corps your doctors and such

Dental Corps

knick names
Aviation
Airdales, brown shoes
Surface
black shoe
Supply corp
box kicker
Med/Dental Corp
Doc

I'm curious how education fits into the ranking.

I've always heard that higher level officers have more education. I am assuming that is within their military branch.

If someone enters the military with a college degree or even a masters, are they started out on the bottom run with everyone else?

I'm just wondering if the military education is all that matters, or if a traditional 4 year degree starts you out ahead, or just advances you faster, or does nothing at all.

For the most part yes. For officers even if you have a masters you generally start out as an O-1. Now some in the medical field or times of war they may come in at a higher pay grade. But generally people who enlist in the military to be an officer have at the most a Bachelors. As the years go by they usually go back to school and obtain post grad degrees if not multiple.

For enlisted Navy wise having a four year or even two year degree gives you extra oomph when it comes to evaluations. Better evaluations gives you better points towards your next advancement. Where it pays the biggest dividend is when advancing from E-6 to E-7.

Basically all prior schooling gets you in the door. Continued education while serving helps with advancement.

With the Army, you can enlist as E-4 right out the box. Right now, you max out Civ Ed at 100 points, which equates to roughly an Associates. Promotion points are used to place you on the Order of Merit List for E-5 and E-6. It also favors VERY well for E-7 and up.

If you decide to commission you normally enter at O-1, but Medical and Chaplain commission at O-3. You also have the option, if qualified, to go Green To Gold. Green to gold allows you to serve as enlisted first then apply to become an officer. If accepted, you would commission at O-1E through O-3E. Being a Mustang pays very VERY well.

And OER/NCOERs have spots for how many of your Soldiers are taking classes and have degrees, not mention what you're doing for your self. The Army REALLY wants well-educated and smart folks in their ranks.

OER= Officer Evaluation Report
NCOER= NonCommissioned Officer Evaluation Report

NCO= Enlisted Soldier wearing E-5 (Sergeant) through E-9 (Sergeant Major/Command Sergeant Major/Sergeant Major of the Army)

Geeze it's alphabet soup with all those rankings. I'm confused again.

Hercman, why is there a big difference between E-6 and E-7? What are the difference in titles or duties that make those ranks so different?

The Navy is unique when it comes to Enlisted promotions.

E-1 to E-3 is pretty much automatic provided you don't get into trouble. It's a matter of time in grade. Each level has set time frame. From E-3 to E-4 you have to take an exam and using a combination of exam score/evaluation results/military awards a score a value is created which is refered to the final multiple. The Navy then says how many E-4s they need to advance. For example lets say 100 are to advance to E-4. Then of all the test takers the top 100 final multiple wise are advanced.

The same thing applies to for advancing to both E-5 to E-7.

How ever here's the kicker. For E-6 to E-7 the exam just gets you to the board. Then a board of E-8s and E-9s go through the service records of all those who are board eligable to select the new E-7s.

The Navy is the only service where officer and enlisted where different uniforms. Once a sailor makes E-7 he then changes uniforms to that of the officers. It's quite the prestige. Heritage/tradition is the resoning and why they wear the same uniform is cause a role of a Chief Petty Officer (E-7) is the training and mentoring of Junior Officers.