The vicissitudes of rank

The show: JAG

The episode: "Retreat, Hell," first aired February 27, 2001, now available on the Season 6 DVDs.

What happened: Chegwidden gives an overview of the case of Private First Class Rafael Jesus Rivera, who acted heroically at Chosin Reservoir yet deserted from the Marine Corps. Now Rivera is asking for veterans' benefits, bringing attention to his desertion. Gunnery Sergeant Victor Galindez (Randy Vasquez) requests the assignment of escorting Private Rivera to face the music. Once Galindez has taken Private Rivera into his custody, he starts driving him to Albuquerque but is ambushed on the way. Galindez learns that Rivera, who barely knew English back then, could claim some land but needs to hire a lawyer in order to be able to stake his claim. With Chegwidden's help, Galindez and Rivera survive the ambush, and Rivera is finally awarded the medal he earned so long ago in Korea.

What the writers neglected: A lot of servicemembers are very touchy about being called the wrong rank, especially when that rank is lower than their actual rank. For example, Gunnery Sergeant Victor Galindez probably wouldn't like being called just "Sergeant." And if he made Master Gunnery Sergeant, he wouldn't like being called just "Gunnery Sergeant." A corporal making that mistake would probably get chewed out. But, regardless of rank, a Marine has every right to demand to be addressed by the correct rank and name.

Even a lowly Private. But what the writers neglected to realize is that being a "Private First Class" doesn't mean that you're a first-class Private, but that you're one rank above Private. Of course "Private First Class" can be too long to say sometimes, as in say, combat. Dialogue like this would be ridiculous:

Lopez: "Private First Class John Smith, hand me that ammunition magazine!"

Smith: "Aye, aye, Master Gunnery Sergeant Juan Lopez!"

The proper abbreviation is an acronym: P.F.C. (usually given as "Pfc." in print).

However, it's entirely possible that Rivera doesn't care about whether he's called a Private or a Pfc. If he "hasn't been a Private for fifty years," he probably hasn't been a Pfc. for 49 years and 6 months, or something like that. The problem is that at the beginning of the episode, Chegwidden says Rivera is a Private First Class, but throughout the rest of the episode Rivera is consistently referred to as "Private Rivera," by Galindez and by Chegwidden. When Chegwidden was a Lieutenant Commander, he wouldn't have liked being called "Lieutenant Chegwidden" any more than Galindez would like being called just "Sergeant Galindez" now (though perhaps he would've been OK with just "Commander Chegwidden.") I would think Chegwidden would extend this courtesy to all sailors and Marines.

So either Chegwidden was wrong when he said Rivera was a Private First Class at the beginning of the episode, or both Galindez and Chegwidden were wrong several times for the remainder of the episode. Was Technical Advisor Matt Sigloch absent when they shot the case overview scene?