General Questions About Things.

[President_Elect_Shang]

O11 pay: A lot I assure you, but it also depends on time in service.

Don’t take this wrong PvK but military nomenclature never pretends to be authoritative and meaningful. It IS authoritative and meaningful. The terms used by one branch may be different than that used by another but this same trend can be seen in spoken language. A fag as opposed to a fag for example, both are English but have very different meanings.

Most all military language is derived from tradition or acronyms that are or where in use. Even the simplest of commands that you see on TV have roots that can extend back to the days of pre-gun powder combat. By way of comparison is the classical wedding, it is steeped in tradition and very meaningful.

In short your observation that “A lot of military culture and language has to do with insisting on something absurd and inconsistent, and insisting it go unquestioned.” Could not be any further from the truth.