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89-516: The term appears to derive from the title of a German royal official, the Quartiermeister . This term meant "master of quarters" (where "quarters" refers to lodging or accommodation). Alternatively, it could have been derived from "master of the quarterdeck " where the helmsman and captain controlled the ship. The term's first use in English was as a naval term, which entered English in

178-553: A commanding officer , subordinate military units and other stakeholders. A centralised general staff results in tighter top-down control but requires larger staff at headquarters (HQ) and reduces accuracy of orientation of field operations, whereas a decentralised general staff results in enhanced situational focus, personal initiative , speed of localised action, OODA loop , and improved accuracy of orientation. A commander "commands" through their personal authority, decision-making and leadership, and uses general staff to exercise

267-461: A Colonel Adjutant Staff Officer (Grade 2), informally known as A2: Ranked Major Adjutant Staff Officer (Grade 3), informally known as A3: Ranked Captain Q Branch, called စစ်ထောက် or ထောက် for short in Burmese, is responsible for logistical aspects such as supply and transport as well as ordnance service. Quartermaster Staff Officer (Grade 1), informally known as Q1: Ranked Lieutenant Colonel or

356-593: A Colonel Quartermaster Staff Officer (Grade 2), informally known as Q2: Ranked Major Quartermaster Staff Officer (Grade 3), informally known as Q3: Ranked Captain Prussia adopted Austria's approach in the following years, especially when Gerhard von Scharnhorst , who as a Hanoverian staff officer had worked with the Austrian army in the Austrian Netherlands in the early 1790s, took charge. Initially,

445-495: A Headquarters and also supervise and support subordinate units. The finance branch, not to be confused with Administration from which it has split, sets the finance policy for the operation. Operationally, the Administration and Finance may be interlinked, but have separate reporting chains. Civil-Military Co-operation or civil affairs are the activities that establish, maintain, influence, or exploit relations between

534-541: A blue and white aiguillette on the left shoulder. In the Swiss Army , a quartermaster (Qm) is an officer (from 2 Lt. to colonel) in charge with the coordination of the Kommissariatsdienst (accountancy, post-service, fuel resupply, "all sort of food" resupply and others) of a battalion , regiment and brigade / division . His function is more a control and supervision function: a staff officer for

623-474: A more appropriate tasker within the unit to be handled and resolved, which would otherwise be an unnecessary distraction for the Commanding Officer who already makes numerous decisions every day. In addition, a staff aims to carefully craft any useful situations and utilize that information. In a generic command staff, more seasoned and senior officers oversee staff sections of groups organized by

712-722: A more important role for the Generalquartiermeister (Chief of Staff). The failures in the army, especially at the Battle of Leuthen made it clear that Austria had no "great brain" and the command needed to spread the workload to allow the Commander-in-chief the time to consider the strategic picture. The 1757 regulations had created the Grosse Feldgeneralstab and Kleine Generalstab (large and small general staff) and after changes in 1769,

801-514: A neutral state, is not part of NATO) OR-7 in the senior NCO's category ( German : Höhere Unteroffiziere ). For technical questions, the QMS is subordinated to the Qm officer (Qm 2 Lt, Qm 1 lt or Qm captain incorporated in the staff of a battalion/group). The tasks of resupply are assigned at company level to the two SNCO's (CSM and QMS). The QMS is the material executor of the Qm tasks at company level and for

890-489: A particular soldier) or from the top down (such as orders being received from the army level directing that a particular soldier be reassigned to a new unit outside the command). In army units, this person is often called the Adjutant . The S-1 also works with the postal mailing office, and deals with awards and ranks as well. The intelligence section is responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence information about

979-628: A permanent staff of 30 officers was established under the direction of Franz Moritz von Lacy , which would be expanded in wartime with junior officers. The Grosse staff was divided into three: First, the Intrinsecum , which handled internal administration and directing operations; secondly, external activities, including the Pioneers ; thirdly, the Inspection Service, which handled the issuing of orders and prisoners of war. Alongside

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1068-492: A role. The staff numbers are assigned according to custom, not hierarchy, traceable back to French practice; i.e., 1 is not "higher ranking" than 2 . This list reflects the SHAPE structure: Since the original continental staff system only covered branches 1 through 6, it is not uncommon to see 7 through 9 omitted or having various meanings. Common variation include merging of 3 and 5 to 3 , Operations and Plans; omitting

1157-399: A single deck, with raised structures at each end: the " forecastle " in the front, and the " aftercastle " in the rear. Following the introduction of cannon, the aftercastle was gradually replaced with a simpler structure consisting of the halfdeck above the main deck, extending forwards from the stern to the mainmast; and above that the quarterdeck, extending about half as far forwards. Later

1246-418: A small independent element, that is a part of a non-staff organization; i.e., an E3 is an operational element on a logistics site or an E4 is a logistics element on a forward medical support site. Thus, the personnel officer of a naval headquarters would be referred to as N1 . In reality, in large organizations each of these staff functions will require the support of its own large staff, so N1 refers both to

1335-402: A smart appearance at all times. Personnel not in the uniform of the day generally avoid crossing the quarterdeck unless their work requires it. On ships with a well-defined quarterdeck area, uniformed personnel should salute when they enter it. Smoking and recreational activities are prohibited on the quarterdeck unless specially authorised by the commanding officer. The starboard gangway to

1424-462: A specific deck, but to a ceremonial area designated as such by the captain, often used as the ship's reception area while in harbour. As in the days of sail, it is a place where the captain has special control and prerogatives. In port, the quarterdeck is the most important place on the ship, and is the central control point for all its major activities, as well as it is where the captain usually stands. Underway, its importance diminishes as control of

1513-517: A staff, whose chief was responsible for directing operations and executing the overall headquarters plan. The staff on the outbreak of war in 1809 numbered over 170. Finally in 1811, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz produced his Über die bessere Einrichtung des Generalstabs , which prioritised the Chief of Staff's managerial and supervisory role with the departments (Political Correspondence, Operations and Service) under their own directors, effectively merging

1602-426: A veto power by a pirate ship's "Articles of Agreement" , in order to create an officer who could counterbalance the powers of the pirate captain. Pirate quartermasters, like pirate captains, were usually elected by their crews. It was often the quartermaster's responsibility to lead the pirate boarding party when boarding another ship. This was usually done from the quarterdeck (the place where two ships touched during

1691-559: Is also a role defined mostly as "camp commander", who is in charge of the HQ logistic issues, ceremonies and parades and discipline. These duties differ slightly in the air force and navy. The ranks of IDF quartermasters vary from sergeant major to CWO, depending on the size of the camp. Most soldiers refer to him as rasar (the Hebrew acronym for the rank of 2WO) without regarding his actual rank. Quartermasters are identified (in all IDF branches) by

1780-474: Is also the commander of the battalions support company, known as the battalion headquarters company. In the standing army he is usually a captain, but the role is a major's role. In the reserve army he is usually a major. While most of the staff officers are directly under the command of the battalion commander, the quartermaster has a lieutenant, a logistics officer and a junior ordnance officer (the battalion's ordnance platoon commander) under his direct command. He

1869-580: Is also the highest rank in the Sea Scouts, BSA , an older youth (age 13–21) co-ed program. A quartermaster (kwartiermeester) is in the Netherlands the assistant patrol leader of a Sea Scout patrol (Bak), in Flanders it is the patrol leader of a Sea Scout patrol (Kwartier). Quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where

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1958-488: Is done by a qualified navigation electronics technician (NAV-ET). Along with the job of a Navy surface QM, NAV-ETs are also responsible for electronic systems that deal with navigation, internal communications, atmosphere monitoring, ship's entertainment systems, re-circulatory air systems (ventilation) and remote valve indication or manipulation. After 2004, the U.S. Navy disestablished the signalman rating (SM); signalmen were responsible for visual communications, and many of

2047-418: Is in charge of all logistics issues in the battalion and also in charge of the battalion's headquarter's day-to-day life. He is commissioned as an officer by the ramatkal (the army's general chief of staff), and as a logistic officer by kalar (the army's general logistic officer). In large camps and higher headquarters (brigade, division and corps HQ), apart from the staff officer in charge of logistics, there

2136-564: Is responsible for Responsible for intelligence, training and every aspect of operations. General Staff Officer (Grade 1), informally known as G1: Ranked Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel General Staff Officer (Grade 2), informally known as G2: Ranked Major General Staff Officer (Grade 3), informally known as G3: Ranked Captain A Branch, called စစ်ရေး or ရေး for short in Burmese, is responsible for every aspect of personnel management such as medical and military. Adjutant Staff Officer (Grade 1), informally known as A1: Ranked Lieutenant Colonel or

2225-548: Is responsible for managing the wide scope of materiel , transport, facilities, services and medical/health support: By NATO doctrine, the logistic staff is tasked with overseeing logistic aspects and principles, where the focus is that "logistic support must be focused towards ensuring the success of the operation" and prescriptions of elements such as responsibility and authority. A logistic staff may be divided into sections based on branch or geographic area. Each section may in turn also be divided into tasks and roles. The size of

2314-514: Is the point of contact for the issue of communications instructions and protocol during operations as well as for communications troubleshooting, issue, and preventative maintenance. Communications at this level is paired with digital as well as voice (radio, computer, etc.). At the unit level, S-6 is also usually responsible for all electronic systems within a unit to include computers, faxes, copy machines, and phone systems. The training branch will organize and coordinate training activity conducted by

2403-915: The Australian Commonwealth Military Forces (now the Australian Army ) adopted many of the practices of the British Army, including its staff system. While this approach was modified and adapted over the course of the 20th Century, the British three branch system and nomenclature remained a feature of Australian practice until 1997 when it adopted the Common Joint Staff System , based on the NATO or Continental/General Staff System, across all three services. The primary reasons given for this were

2492-522: The French Army of Italy in 1795, his was the old administrative role, accurately described by Jomini and Vachee as "the chief clerk" and "of limited competence". His manual is merely a reporting system as a kind of office manual. Staff officers were rotated out of the line on the Austrian model, but received no training and merely became efficient in the administrative tasks, especially the rapid issuance of orders. It suited Napoleon Bonaparte from

2581-462: The Prussian Army assigned a limited number of technical expert officers to support field commanders. Before 1746, however, reforms had added management of intelligence and contingency planning to the staff's duties. Later, the practice was initiated of rotating officers from command to staff assignments and back to familiarize them with both aspects of military operations, a practice that, with

2670-559: The Secretary of Defense . The "Continental Staff System", also known as the "General Staff System" (GSS), is used by most NATO countries in structuring their militaries' staff functions. In this system, which is based on one originally employed by the French Army in the 19th century, each staff position in a headquarters or unit is assigned a letter-prefix corresponding to the formation's element and one or more numbers specifying

2759-666: The "control" on their behalf in a large unit. Most NATO nations, including the United States and most European nations, use the Continental Staff System which has origin in Napoleon 's military. The Commonwealth Staff System, used by most of the Commonwealth , has its origin in the British military. One of the key purposes of a military staff is to provide accurate, timely information (which includes

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2848-495: The 15th century via the equivalent French and Dutch naval titles quartier-maître and kwartier-meester , respectively. The term began to refer to army officers in English around 1600. For land armies, the term was first coined in Germany as Quartiermeister and initially denoted a court official with the duty of preparing the monarch's sleeping quarters. In the 17th century, it started to be used in various militaries in

2937-865: The 18th century source, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates , aboard a pirate ship "the Captain can undertake nothing which the Quarter-Master does not approve. We may say, the Quarter-Master is a humble Imitation of the Roman Tribune of the People ; he speaks for, and looks after the Interest of the Crew". Several quartermasters, notably among them Calico Jack Rackham , became captains after their previous captain

3026-609: The Adjutants and General Staff officers. In this system lay the beginnings of a formal staff corps, whose members could specialise in operations, intelligence and logistics. Despite a short lived permanent staff under St-Cyr (1783–90), the French reverted to the old system in 1790, when the Revolutionary Government abolished the staff corps. When General Louis Alexandre Berthier was appointed Chief of Staff to

3115-534: The British Army was thought too small to support separate staff and command career streams. Officers would typically alternate between staff and command. Beevor, Inside the British Army, says instead that the terrible cleavages between staff and line units caused by the enormous losses during the trench warfare of the World War I meant that senior British officers consequently decided that all officers would rotate between staff and line responsibilities, preventing

3204-687: The Canadian Army (Regular) except the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and Royal Canadian Dental Corps. In recent years, the quartermaster has been a specially trained officer of the Royal Canadian Logistics Service , though CFR (commissioned from ranks) officers have been known to accept regimental appointments such as quartermaster. In the IDF , the battalion quartermaster

3293-406: The Commander-in-chief. In 1796, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen augmented these with his own Observationspunkte , writing of the Chief of Staff: "he is duty bound to consider all possibilities related to operations and not view himself as merely carrying out those instructions". On 20 March 1801, Feldmarschalleutnant Duka became the world's first peacetime Generalquartiermeister at the head of

3382-576: The French Navy. In the Norwegian navy, kvartermester is a rank equal to an army sergeant . In the Royal Navy and Commonwealth navies (Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal New Zealand Navy, Indian Navy, and South African Navy), the quartermaster is the senior member of the gangway staff when the ship is alongside and is responsible for supervising the boatswain 's mate and

3471-571: The General Staff was the General Adjutant, who led a group of Adjutant staff selected by the army commanders to handle the details of internal administration and collating intelligence, and answered to the Commander-in-chief. The Chief of Staff became the chief adviser to the Commander-in-chief and, in a fundamental move away from the previous administrative role, the Chief of Staff now undertook operational planning, while delegating

3560-639: The Joint Staff of today works directly for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than the corporate Joint Chiefs of Staff , as they did from 1947 to 1986. Under this scheme, operational command and control of military forces are not the province of the Joint Staff, but that of combatant commanders , who report through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff unless otherwise directed, to

3649-607: The ability to standardise staff organisations across the breadth and depth of the services, and; improve interoperability between America, Britain, Canada and Australia, as well as NATO partners that employed this system. At this time the Australian Defence Force also developed its own Joint Military Appreciation Proces s (JMAP), itself derived from the US Tactical Decision-Making Process and UK Individual Estimate. The head of

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3738-464: The addition of enlisted personnel, continues to be used. After 1806, Prussia's military academies trained mid-level officers in specialist staff skills. In 1814, Prussia formally established by law a central military command— Prussian General Staff —and a separate staff for each division and corps . Despite some professional and political issues with the Prussian system, especially when viewed through

3827-406: The appointment of quartermaster has been significant in armies. Until recent times, the British Army almost invariably rewarded an outstanding RSM by appointing him quartermaster of his battalion, thus ensuring the unit an experienced officer who knew the unit thoroughly and would prove difficult to mislead or beguile. [The past tense is in fact incorrect, as the British Army still has this policy.] As

3916-485: The boarding attack). The quartermaster ranked higher than any other officer aboard the ship except the captain himself, and could veto the captain's decisions whenever the ship was not chasing a prize or engaged in battle. The quartermaster also was chiefly responsible for discipline, assessing punishments for crewmen who transgressed the articles . According to pirate Captain Charles Johnson , ghost author of

4005-427: The budget officer in the operations section of the intelligence department; A1.1-1-1 might simply be a receptionist). The manpower or personnel officer supervises personnel and administration systems. This department functions as the essential administrative liaison between the subordinate units and the headquarters, handling personnel actions coming from the bottom up (such as a request for an award to be given to

4094-399: The captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on board, and the word is still used to refer to such an area on a ship or even in naval establishments on land. Many such facilities have areas decorated like shipboard quarterdecks. In the 20th century the word came to be applied to the area at the stern of

4183-508: The chief of the column staff and his principal task would be to help the commander to understand what was intended. When Karl Mack von Leiberich became chief of staff of the army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in the Netherlands, he issued the Instruktionspunkte für gesammte Herren Generals , the last of 19 points setting out the roles of staff officers, dealing with offensive and defensive operations, while helping

4272-573: The command chain together with the CSM, directly subordinated to the company commander (captain) as staff NCOs. The Fourier is also the substitute of the chief sergeant major ( Hauptfeldweibel ), if considering the command platoon by itself. In the British Army and Royal Marines , the quartermaster (QM) is the commissioned officer in a battalion or regiment responsible for supply. By longstanding tradition, they are always commissioned from

4361-472: The command overall, clarifying matters overall. This frees up the most senior members of the command at each level for decision making and issuing direction for further research or information gathering (perhaps requiring men to put their lives at risk to gather additional intelligence). Operations staff officers also are tasked with battle planning both for offensive and defensive conditions, and issuing contingency plans for handling situations anticipated during

4450-623: The complexities of the Army and its material increased, an officer with greater professional technical knowledge of the problems that surround stores management was required for the Quartermaster's duties. Under authority of Canadian Army Order 201 – 16 dated 8 February 1954, the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps assumed these responsibilities and undertook to train and provide unit quartermasters and staff for all corps of

4539-407: The continental system, 1 is higher ranking than 2 followed by 3. Despite being called GSO, ASO and QSO in English, all of them are translated as either စစ်ဦးစီးမှူး for G (or) ဦးစီးအရာရှိ for A and Q in Burmese . You can check the 2010/2011 military command structure of Myanmar in the photo shown below which still uses the same staff system G Branch, called စစ်ဦးစီး or ဦး for short in Burmese,

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4628-399: The control of the ship's navigator or other officer if there was no officer navigator. In the modern navy, a quartermaster is a petty officer who specializes in navigation. The rating abbreviation is QM. The symbol used for the rating and worn on uniforms is a ship's wheel . The colloquial form of address for a quartermaster is "Wheels". On U.S. Navy submarines, the job of a quartermaster

4717-590: The development of a separate general staff corps. The National Security Act of 1947 instead created a Joint Staff populated by military service members who, rather than becoming career staff officers on the German general staff model, rotate into (and back out of) joint staff positions. Following the major revision of Title 10 of the United States Code by the Goldwater–Nichols Act in 1986,

4806-623: The enemy to determine what the enemy is doing or might do, to prevent the accomplishment of the enemy's mission. This office may also control maps and geographical information systems and data. At the unit level, the S-2 is the unit's security officer, and the S-2 section manages all security clearance issues for the unit's personnel. Other duties of the S-2 often include intelligence oversight and physical security . The operations office may include plans and training. The operations office plans and coordinates operations, and all things necessary to enable

4895-512: The foreseeable future. Prior to the late 18th century, there was generally no organizational support for staff functions such as military intelligence , logistics , planning or personnel. Unit commanders handled such functions for their units, with informal help from subordinates who were usually not trained for or assigned to a specific task. Count Leopold Joseph von Daun , in a letter to Empress Maria Theresa in January 1758, pressed for

4984-401: The formation to operate and accomplish its mission. In most units, the operations office is the largest of the staff sections and considered the most important. All aspects of sustaining the unit's operations, planning future operations, and additionally planning and executing all unit training, fall under the responsibility of operations. The operations office is also tasked with keeping track of

5073-443: The halfdeck was extended the entire length of the ship, becoming the main deck (the former main deck now being the gun deck), leaving the quarterdeck as the only significant deck above the main deck. The captain or master commanded the ship from the quarterdeck. The quarterdeck was traditionally the place where the captain walked when on deck, usually on the windward side. The navigator also used it when taking his sights when fixing

5162-613: The individual services) is a group of officers , enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military unit in their command and control role through planning, analysis, and information gathering, as well as by relaying, coordinating, and supervising the execution of their plans and orders, especially in case of multiple simultaneous and rapidly changing complex operations. They are organised into functional groups such as administration , logistics , operations , intelligence , training , etc. They provide multi-directional flow of information between

5251-432: The information is not pertinent to the unit, it is redirected to the command level which can best utilize the condition or information. Staffs are generally the first to know of issues that affect its group. Issues that require major decisions affecting the unit's operational capability are communicated to the commanding officer. However, not all issues will be handled by the commander. Smaller matters that arise are given to

5340-438: The logistic staff can vary greatly, depending on the environment and complexity of operations. NATO in example work with a "Multinational Joint Logistic Centre", which exists outside of the force commander's staff, but runs as a separate entity/unit, with only a few logistic personnel in the commander's staff who act as liaisons. The plans and strategy office is responsible for civil military operations (CMO) strategy planning. At

5429-474: The military forces, the government or non-government civilian organizations and authorities, and the civilian populace in a friendly, neutral, or hostile area of operations in order to facilitate military operations and consolidate and achieve mission objectives. The "Commonwealth staff system", used by most Commonwealth nations, is largely based on the British military's staff system with nation-specific variations. Following Australia's Federation in 1901,

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5518-435: The moment he took over the army the following year and he would use Berthier's system throughout his wars. Crucially, Napoleon remained his own intelligence chief and operational planner, a workload which, ultimately, not even he could cope with. Overall staff system structure is generally similar to the pre 1984 British Army system with G Branch, A Branch and Q Branch with slightly different staff officer position names. Unlike

5607-460: The needs of the unit. Senior Enlisted Personnel task personnel in the maintenance of tactical equipment and vehicles. Senior Analysts are tasked with the finalizing of reports, and their enlisted personnel participate in the acquisition of information from subordinate staffs and units. This hierarchy places decision making and reporting under the auspices of the most experienced personnel and maximizes information flow of pertinent information sent out of

5696-477: The office and the officer in charge of it. The continental staff system can be carried down to the next level: J1.3 (or J13 , sometimes the dot-separator is omitted) is thus the operations officer of the personnel office of a joint headquarters, but the exact definition of the roles at this level may vary. Below this, numbers can be attached following a hyphen, but these are usually only positional numbers assigned arbitrarily to identify individuals ( G2.3-2 could be

5785-470: The other enlisted man's "command rating" being the boatswain's mate. While the rank is used in a number of NATO countries , it is ranked differently depending on the country. Pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy elevated the rank of quartermaster to much higher powers and responsibilities than it had aboard non-pirate merchant or naval vessels. On pirate ships, the quartermaster was often granted

5874-608: The others being the Transportation Corps and the Ordnance Corps. In Belgium, the naval ranks of quartermaster, chief quartermaster, and first chief quartermaster are used. In the French Navy , Quartermaster ( Quartier-maître ) is a junior rank, equivalent to a French Army and Air Force Corporal . The French rank has nothing to do with supplies. This rank is also used by many other navies based on

5963-611: The personnel and their responsibilities were incorporated in the QM rating. The U.S. Navy rating dealing with supply and logistics is logistics specialist (LS) which would be equivalent to the Army quartermaster. The structure of ranks and job specialties of the United States Coast Guard is similar to that of the United States Navy. The Coast Guard used a quartermaster rating until the summer of 2003, when

6052-530: The position of a modern Chief of Staff: "The Chief of Staff stands at the side of the Commander-in-Chief and is completely at his disposal. His sphere of work connects him with no specific unit". "The Commander-in-Chief decides what should happen and how; his chief assistant works out these decisions, so that each subordinate understands his allotted task". With the creation of the Korps in 1809, each had

6141-591: The prism of the 20th century World Wars, their General Staff concept has been adopted by many large armies in existence today. Before the Crimean War staff work was looked at "with great disdain" in the British Army ; the hardships of that war caused by disorganization led to a change in attitude. The General Staff in Britain was formed in 1905, and reorganized again in 1908. Unlike the Prussian staff system,

6230-405: The quarterdeck is normally used by officers and their visitors; the port gangway is used by everyone else. In bad weather, all personnel use the lee gangway . On smaller ships with only one gangway, it may be rigged to either side and is used by everyone. Flagships sometimes have an additional starboard gangway for the flag officer and officers of his staff. In medieval times, warships had

6319-418: The quarterdeck. Greek, Roman, and Carthaginian warships all carried shrines which were given special respect. This continued into Christian times, and in medieval British warships, the religious shrine was set up on the quarterdeck. All hands were required to salute it by taking off their hats or caps. This led to the habit of saluting whenever one entered the quarterdeck. Today, quarterdeck refers not to

6408-446: The ranks and hold the rank of captain or major (although until the 20th century the quartermaster was usually a lieutenant ). Some units also have a technical quartermaster, who is in charge of technical stores. The quartermaster is assisted by the regimental quartermaster sergeant (RQMS) (and the technical quartermaster by the technical quartermaster sergeant (TQMS)) and a staff of storemen . The QM, RQMS and storemen are drawn from

6497-580: The rating was merged into the boatswain's mate rating. The Coast Guard's quartermasters had the same duties as the Navy's, with the exception that—at some point after World War II—the Coast Guard folded the duties of its signalman rating into the quartermaster rating. Also, in recent decades, quartermaster was one of the only two Coast Guard enlisted ratings permitted to hold command of a small boat station (command otherwise being reserved for officers), with

6586-512: The regiment or corps in which they work, not from the Royal Logistic Corps (or its predecessors), which is responsible for issuing and transporting supplies to them. Units which specialize in supply are known as "supply" units, not "quartermaster" units, and their personnel as suppliers or logistics specialists ("log specs"). Traditionally, the quartermaster had previously served as RQMS and then regimental sergeant major (RSM) of

6675-520: The respective commander. The Qm has a direct subordinate at company level: it is the company quartermaster sergeant. The company quartermaster sergeant is known since the 18th century as Fourier or Einheits-Fourier and has the rank equivalent of a senior non-commissioned-officer like the company sergeant major (since 2001 company chief sergeant major, CMS) and they are ranked (for better understanding in NATO-ranks even though Switzerland, as

6764-524: The results of contingency planning) on which command decisions are based. A goal is being able to suggest approaches or help produce well-informed decisions that will effectively manage and conserve unit resources. In addition to generating information, the staff also manages the flow of communication within the unit and around it. While controlled information flow toward the commander is a priority, those useful or contingent in nature are communicated to lower-level units and/or through their respective staffs. If

6853-414: The routine work to his senior staff officers. Staff officers were drawn from line units and would later return to them, the intention being that they would prove themselves as leaders during their time with the staff. In a battle or when the army had detached corps, a small number of staff would be allocated to the column commander as a smaller version of headquarters. The senior man, usually a Major, would be

6942-418: The security of the brow. They are also responsible for steering the ship while at sea. The quartermaster is the enlisted member in charge of the watch-to-watch navigation and the maintenance, correction, and preparation of nautical charts and navigation publications. They are also responsible for navigational instruments and clocks and the training of ship's lookouts and helmsmen. They perform these duties under

7031-604: The sense of organizing supplies. From at least the English Civil War period until 1813, the quartermaster was the senior NCO in a British cavalry troop, in which context he had nothing to do with supply. In that year, the position was replaced by the new appointment of troop sergeant major , with the cavalry adopting commissioned, regimental quartermasters as described above. From Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps standing orders: For many centuries – indeed perhaps as long as there have been organized military units –

7120-412: The ship is transferred to the bridge . The quarterdeck is normally on the main deck, but may be elsewhere in some types of ship. It is usually marked off by special lines, deck markings, decorative cartridge cases, or fancy knotwork. Special attention is paid to the quarterdeck's cleanliness and physical appearance. Those standing watch on the quarterdeck must be in the uniform of the day and present

7209-479: The ship, often (on naval vessels) used for secondary weapons and (on battleships) seaplane catapults. In modern military designs the stern has been roofed over by the helicopter deck but a large space remains underneath which is typically used for sonar equipment or small boats and which is still referred to as the quarterdeck in Commonwealth navies. There are ancient traditions of offering special deference to

7298-423: The simple G , which is retained in place for modern army usage. But the increasing complexity of modern armies, not to speak of the spread of the staff concept to naval, air and other elements, has demanded the addition of new prefixes. These element prefixes are: On some occasions the letter E can also be observed, though it is not an official term. In that case it is for element and it will be used to identify

7387-666: The staff and the wartime role of the Chief of Staff was now focused on planning and operations to assist the Commander. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen himself produced a new Dienstvorschrift on 1 September 1805, which divided the staff into three: 1) Political Correspondence; 2) the Operations Directorate, dealing with planning and intelligence; 3) the Service Directorate, dealing with administration, supply and military justice. The Archduke set out

7476-648: The training branch and utilizing 7 for engineering (as seen in US Military Sealift Command and Multinational Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) ) and replacing 9 with a legal branch (making CIMIC a part of another branch, i.e. 2 or 4) as seen with the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters. Derived from the Prussian Große Generalstab (Great General Staff), traditionally these staff functions were prefixed by

7565-486: The unit level, the S-5 is the primary adviser to the commander on the civilian-to-military and military-to-civilian impact of the mission/operation within the host nation's (HN) area of interest (AOI), area of operations (AO), or the target area of interest (TAOI). The G5 serves as the mission support office (MSO) at the division level and HHC for civil military plans and strategy. The signal office directs all communications and

7654-714: The unit of which he later became quartermaster. In the United States Army , the term is used to describe all supply personnel and units that are part of the United States Army Quartermaster Corps (USQMC) which was formerly the Quartermaster Department. It is a Sustainment, formerly combat service support (CSS), branch of the United States Army. It is also one of three U.S. Army logistics branches,

7743-612: The vessel's position. On most ships, it was customary that only officers could use the quarterdeck, others being allowed there only when assigned for specific duties. By extension, on flush-decked ships the after part of the main deck, where the officers took their station, was also known as the quarterdeck. In Sea Scouts , quarterdeck training is introductory training for youth to equip them with leadership and management abilities to effectively run their ship. Staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff , navy staff , or air staff within

7832-512: The weekly training schedules. In most military units (i.e., battalion , regiment , and brigade ), the operations officer carries the same rank as the executive officer (XO), but ranks third in the unit's chain of command while the other staff officers are one rank lower. For example, in a battalion, the S-3 would hold the rank of major (like the battalion XO), while the remaining staff officers are captains or lieutenants . The logistics office

7921-458: Was killed or deposed. A Scout quartermaster within the Scout movement is responsible for maintaining all the normal camping supplies in a Scout troop or pack. This may include, but is not limited to, camping supplies, tents, "chuck boxes" (containers holding food and cooking supplies), stoves, camp fuel (propane, naphtha , etc.), tarps, camping trailers, dining flys, etc. The Quartermaster Award

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