Time for my two cents on the issue:

In stories which occur in a military setting, familiarity with the

military

helps give the story a proper feel. 

<snip>

Whatever you do though, at least try to be accurate with the military,
lest you run the risk of being keelhauled from stem to stern (that's
Naval talk for getting flamed).

You know, I have yet to get a single complaint for my military presentation
in those parts of Undocumented Features I'm responsible for. Nobody seems to
comment on it at all, in fact, with the exception that people seem to like
my least-favorite part of the stories, the battle scenes.

And I don't have all that much experience (first-hand, anyway) with the
military, and I'm still -very- shaky on the naval non-com rank system...

Redneck (-does-, however, know that ensign is -not- the lowest rank on a
ship, Mr. Roddenberry)

Kris Overstreet's email has changed...
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... respond to redneck@detnet.com please