To become enlisted, all one requires is to have a high school diploma. Additional training is provided in both cases. One can aspire to be inducted as an officer in armed forces.

It does not matter which branch you’re in, or what rank you are: there is a huge difference between the two job types. NCOs have years of service and have developed a focused, on-the-job expertise in their field. They include first and second lieutenants, captains, majors, colonels, lieutenant-colonels and generals. The minimum requirement to be inducted as a commissioned officer in the armed forces is a bachelor level degree.

Noncommissioned officers (NCOs) are high-ranking enlisted service members who have been given officer-like authority by their superiors. The Army distinguishes commissioned and non-commissioned officers by their duties, their ranks, their authority and their pay. There is also a difference in opportunities for enlisted personnel and officers in certain branches.

Warrant officers are promoted from the enlisted ranks for technical expertise and rank between the highest enlisted and lowest commissioned officers. Being commissioned as an officer gives young, new lieutenants a degree of status over a young, new airmen, privates, or seamen — but not the NCO.

NCOs are enlisted soldiers with specific skills and …

Officers.

However, many enlisted men today have associate and even bachelor level degrees when enlisting. Enlisted, conversely, can join the military straight from high school using a diploma or a GED. A commissioned officer holds a commission from the President of the United States and can command those under him or her, both officers and enlisted personnel.

In the military, there has always been some sense of competition between the enlisted personnel and the commissioned officers.