Conference Credit for Level III

[SarDragon]

3. You will meet people at a conference who are wing level and above who, do not know basics about the military, a good example of this are Wing Commanders who believe that we wear GRADE on out epaulets or sleeves.  For those of you who read this GRADE is short for Pay-Grade a military term that determines the pay level for an individual.  Rank is what we wear.

As much as I agree with your statement in principle, it's wrong as far as CAP goes. CAPR 35-5 calls it grade, as does CAPM 39-1. This goes all the way back to the CAPM 50-3 Leadership Lab Manual from 1965, and it continues in the 1981 version. They both refer to grade insignia, and not rank.

There is also specific text, essentially unchanged over the years, defining the difference between rank and grade.

Sometimes the terms "grade" and "rank" are confused. Colonel or captain are examples of grades, but no two officers in a grade have identical rank - one is always senior to the other.

That's the way I learned it as a cadet back then, and it's still taught the same way today.