In a military chain of command can any officer issue an order to any officer of junior rank or do they have to be under the officer's command?

in my chain of command, in the air force, we have squads, and a squad leader (who is typically an NCO, non commissioned officer). If I was told to do something from another squad leader, I would say, “yes sir” and say something like, “Sgt so an so is having me do this at the moment, as soon as I’m done, I’ll get right to it”.

An officer position, like LT and up, generally hand down the work to the NCO’s and the NCO’s will tell me what to do (I’m a senior airman). However, if my commander came to me and told me to do something, there is no chance I would ignore it. I would say “yes sir” and would get right to it….if it contradicted what my squad leader told me, I would let my commander know at that moment “sgt so an so told me to do this, should I drop that and do this now, or just make sure it gets done today?”

I’d just be sure to give my customs and courtesies to any person in a higher rank than myself too.

oh, I’m Security Forces by the way.

Hmm. Could a captain from another unrelated division or section give your lieutenant a direct order?

What I am trying to get at is that if anybody can order anybody else of lower rank around, how do you establish accountability if things go wrong and somebody gets hurt?

well, I would never foresee any circumstances in which a captain from another unrelated unit want to try and tell my commander how to do his job…in my unit, I have a colonel, and two LT’s. If we’re all loading up on a plane, and we’re mixing units together, there will be one person in charge of everyone, and it would be the ranking person. But that person is only really in charge to make sure we process in and out correctly. He wouldn’t be giving me orders to do something aside from the out processing, or in processing.

I’m in a position in which, if I’m doing my job…and I’m on duty, I have authority that can over see rank (to some degree). Rank doesn’t make them exempt from doing what I tell them to do. Mind you, I’m not going to give my Base commander a hard time for having an expired ID card, or anything, but would mention it to him and suggest stopping in to get a new one made. But generally if someone came into the base, and I’m out on the main gate checking ID’s…if I came across an expired one, I would take the card, fill out a form and send them to the building to get a new one.

now, other unit commanders asking my unit commander for a favor…I could see that…but I don’t think they go around ordering each other to do things.

Whathappens when an officer throws his weight around in a unit not his own and something goes horribly wrong? Isn’t the idea of a chain of command to be able to fix responsibility for who gave what order? At what point does a subordinate have a responsibility to question or refuse an order?

It would seem to me that it would be impossibly chaotic for officers to go around countermanding one another. There must be some rule about organizational structure so you don’t have cooks and quartermasters blundering into the civil engineering or ordinance departments and vice versa.

there is just no way another unit’s commander would go into another and throw his weight around in something he doesn’t know anything about.

Even my Base commander wouldn’t come into my unit and tell us what to do, he wouldn’t know what we should do, it isn’t his job. The higher ups are to give direction, not direct orders to enlisted people like myself.

Hypothetically speaking, if civil engineering’s commander came in, and told me to arm up and that I’m going out on duty at the main gate…I would be confused, and would check with my squad leader. It just doesn’t happen. I don’t fall under his chain of command, unless I’m put in his supervision by someone I’m directly under (and even then, the only thing he’d be telling me to do, would be maybe helping his guys out with something, but not cop work). Even if my base commander himself came in and told me to arm up and I was going on duty, I would still check with my squad leader. On the other hand, if I was asked to do something as a favor, like…drop this document off with so an so in room 100, I’d say yes sir and do it. but as far as taking orders specific to my job, no way.

As far as being accountable, an officer will always be held accountable to the orders he gave unless it’s something absurd that otherwise would have been taken as a joke or something. There is just no way I’d let a commander from another unit try and tell me how to do my work, if he had no idea how to be a cop. Just like I would expect the same if my commander told someone from Civil Engineering to go put in a new parking lot somewhere…that person would check first with his superior

Technically the only orders we can refuse to follow are ones that would be illegal. “Steal this, kill that person in cold blood”, etc. But like @RandomMrdan said, it just doesn’t happen where a higher ranking officer would come in to someone else’s squadron and start ordering people around. A base commander would have a meeting with the squadron commander, tell him or her how he wants things changed or how he wants them done, then that squadron commander would meet with the enlisted leadership and the new directives or information would be funneled down from there. There would generally not be a situation where some base commander or general would just walk into a building and start telling people what to do arbitrarily.

Thank you, you guys are helping me out. But I’m still not clear on one point. When you say it “just doesn’t happen” where a high ranking officer goes into a different squadron or whatever, is that because its illegal, improper, or “just isn’t done” as a matter of custom?

I once worked in a merchant marine organization where “going through the chain of command” meant if you wanted somebody in another department to do something (say get an electrician to install an outlet), you routed it up through your superior, then his superior and so on, until it reached somebody who is above both departments, and then it would go down the chain to the plant operations department, then to the electricial section, then to the guy who sends guy the who does the actual work.

It isn’t illegal by any means…it just isn’t proper and makes no sense, it just doesn’t happen.

And as far as what you’re saying about the merchant organization…hypothetically speaking, if my unit needed some electrical work done, I would pass it up my chain of command, and they would probably at some point send out an email to someone they knew in the Civil Engineering unit…I doubt something so trivial would find it’s way to the wing commander just so he can tell someone in civil engineering to get the job done.

But in a sense, it will makes it’s way up my chain of command to someone, then make it’s way into another unit for them to channel it back down, eventually finding it’s way to the electrician.

The military is set up the way it is so that this doesn’t happen.

Hey guys,
Sorry if this isn’t really answering MontyZuma’s question, but what if two officers of equal rank are in a squad,but one has served for longer. Can the ‘senior’ give the junior orders, or is seniority just a respect and courtesy thing?

If there were two officers of equal rank in a squad, they wouldn’t give the other orders. I have two Lieutenants in my unit, and they prepare orders together. But my commander is a Colonel.

If one person in a squad has more time in grade than another, he would be expected to know a little bit more than others. I think it would be out of respect to do what that person said. If lets say, an officer was not present, we would listen to the person with rank and time in grade.

Cheers