Rank

Rank has rarely been a significant issue in official Joe fiction, with experience seeming to count more rather than actual rank. The cartoon seemed to ignore it altogether, except in the movie, when Lt. Falcon tried to pull rank on Duke and failed. Nevertheless, the filecards take care to report the rank of all but a few Joes, and even early Cobras had equivalents ranging from E-4 to O-5. Enlisted rank insignias are rarely seen, but when they are, they are sometimes upside-down from real-life insignias

U. S. Military Pay Grades

Grade	Army	Marines	Air Force	Navy	Coast Guard
O-12	General of the Armies			Admiral of the Navy
O-11	General of the Army		General of the Air Force	Fleet admiral
O-10	General			Admiral
O-9	Lieutenant General			Vice Admiral
O-8	Major General			Rear Admiral (Upper)
O-7	Brigadier General			Rear Admiral (Lower)
O-6	Colonel			Captain
O-5	Lieutenant Colonel			Commander
O-4	Major			Lieutenant Commander
O-3	Captain			Lieutenant
O-2	First Lieutenant			Lieutenant Junior Grade
O-1	Second Lieutenant			Ensign
Grade	Army	Marines	Air Force	Navy	Coast Guard
W-5	Chief Warrant Officer		(discontinued)	Chief Warrant Officer
W-4	Chief Warrant Officer		(discontinued)	Chief Warrant Officer
W-3	Chief Warrant Officer		(discontinued)	Chief Warrant Officer
W-2	Chief Warrant Officer		(discontinued)	Chief Warrant Officer
W-1	Warrant Officer		(discontinued)	Warrant Officer
Grade	Army	Marines	Air Force	Navy	Coast Guard
E-9	Sergeant Major or Master gunnery sergeant		Chief Master Sergeant	Master Chief Petty Officer
E-8	Master Sergeant or First Sergeant		Senior Master Sergeant	Senior Chief Petty Officer
E-7	Sergeant First Class	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant	Chief Petty Officer
E-6	Staff Sergeant		Technical Sergeant	Petty Officer, 1st Class
E-5	Sergeant		Staff Sergeant	Petty Officer, 2nd Class
E-4	Specialist or Corporal		Sergeant or Senior Airman	Petty Officer, 3rd Class
E-3	Private First Class	Lance Corporal	Airman First Class	Seaman
E-2	Private	Private First Class	Airman	Seaman Apprentice
E-1	Private	Private	Airman Basic	Seaman Recruit

Non-Army Joes

The vast majority of Joes are in the U.S. Army. But the following characters are exceptions, grouped by their service.

Other branches of the US Armed Forces

Air Force

Ace

Bombstrike

Countdown

Freestyle

Ghostrider

Maverick

Payload

Skystriker

Slip-Stream

Space Shot

Coast Guard

Cutter

Marines

Dial-Tone

Gung-Ho

Hollow Point

Leatherneck

Lt. Stone

Mainframe

Sgt. Slaughter

Navy

Deep Six

Depth Charge

Dr. Link Talbot

Harpoon

Keel-Haul

Mariner

Rampart

Shipwreck

Topside

Torpedo

Tracker

Wet-Suit

Wet Down

No Rank Given

Back-Stop

Chameleon

Mercer (listed as E-5 Equivalent)

Red Dog (listed as E-5 Equivalent)

Specialist Trakker (specialist implies E-4)

Storm Shadow (as G.I. Joe member)

Taurus (listed as E-5 Equivalent)

U.S. Law Enforcement (current or former)

F.B.I.

Bullhorn

Mace

Red Zone

Sneak Peek

S.W.A.T.

Shockwave (RAH)

Wide Scope

U.S. Marshals

Bullet-Proof

Non-American Operatives

Big Ben (British SAS)

Lt. Stone (British M.I.5)

Skymate (Australian SAS)

Oktober Guard (Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact)

General Iron Bear

Big Bear

Col. Brekhov

Daina / Volga / Vorona

Dragonsky

Lt. Gorky

Horrorshow

Red Star

Shrage

Stormavik

Sgt. Misha Zubenkov

Wong

Rank on the cartoon

As mentioned above, the Sunbow cartoon generally disregarded Joe rank. Otherwise, the first-season Joe team would have been led by Ace and Doc, with the next-ranking officers being Cutter and Steeler. Shipwreck would have outranked Beach Head, and Bazooka would have been giving orders to Alpine.

The various team members usually treated one another as equals, and leadership on a mission was more a matter of functionality and experience than official rank. The only Joes addressed by rank on the series were First Sergeant Hauser, Sergeant Slaughter, Lieutenant Falcon, and General Hawk, plus "colonels" Dial-Tone, Lifeline, and Shipwreck. (In their episode, Beachhead expressed surprise that the promotions had not gone to himself, Roadblock, or Slip-Stream.)

G.I. Joe's leadership, as reported in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" and "The Most Dangerous Thing in the World," had Hawk at the head of the team, followed by Duke, then Flint, and finally Beachhead and Sgt. Slaughter. In the absence of these, Scarlett, Ace, and Lady Jaye usually took the lead on their missions, and Stalker, Gung-Ho, Cover Girl, Cutter, Roadblock, Dusty, and Tollbooth also took on leadership roles at times. Shipwreck was not averse to shouting orders to his teammates, but he apparently never carried legitimate authority over anyone. In addition, Cutter sat next to Flint at Dusty's court-martial, and Slip-Stream, Wild Bill, and Admiral Ledger were alongside Hawk at Falcon's hearing. Admiral Ledger was in charge of the USS Flagg but seemed to be outside the Joe team itself, on par with Colonel Sharp.

Rank in the comic

Rank seems to have little to do with who is in charge of any given mission. As one example, in issues 6 and 7, Stalker (E-5, Sergeant) was put in charge of a team that included Steeler (O-2, First Lieutenant). Stalker went so far as to remind Steeler, an officer, that "this ain't no democracy." Similar examples abound; Keel-Haul should outrank everyone (including Hawk) but virtually no-one behaves as though this were true, Duke and Stalker routinely lead teams that include officers or at least higher-ranking enlisted men, and so on. During the disastrous Trucial Abyssmia mission Duke was in charge of a team that included Falcon, despite the latter's higher rank.