At 4/11/04 10:30 PM, Recon_Rebel wrote:At 4/11/04 07:51 PM, Shpouiten wrote:I think the reason behind naming it Praporshchik instead of Warrant Officer was to avoid confusion with the Police ranks. Anyway I always thought it was a cool looking badge and like Baron said it's the first of the gold badges.At 4/11/04 07:45 PM, Baron_Von_Bad_Guy wrote:My guess is it is a russian something or other, it sound russian, but I might be wrong.Heh, you were right. It's a Warrant Officer in Russian. Well, it is if the website where I've been told me the truth.
Praporshchik is the old equivalent of Warrant OFficer in the Soviet army. No clue if it is still in use in the Russian anymore, but it seems likely. We went over this last summer when I was still (did I ever stop? lol) whining about the number of Sergeant ranks.
Warrant Officer, in the US ranks, is a separate career path between Sergeant and Lieutenant. It's sort of NCO and sort of Officer, but essentially once you've gone that route, you don't come back. The trouble with using it here is that WO grades are WO1, WO2, WO3, and WO4. They don't actually have separate titles. The use of Prap. also gives a nod, however small, to our European contingent of blammers.