no confusion... im just the one waiting for you to stomp on one of my bouncing betty mines

Well, using what we have already seen here, what would the perfect 9 be?  Is MechWarrior even a valid rank, as people will be piloting Aeros, tanks and elementals too? Do we start with cadet/recruit or do we start at the private level?  I'd say as a goal, we should make the ninth rank General.  And for the sake of overall compatibility with a generic unnamed IS faction, lets stay away from anything house specific.

Well, you're absolutely right about MechWarriors being above normal Joe's, and that's precisely what Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock, III, according to Shrapnel, wanted to do.  The fighter pilots of WW I and II were, for all intents and purposes, the cut above, the human-gods of their time, because they took a barely functional machine into the sky and learned how to use that machine with elan and as a very sharp sword against their enemies.  I don't know what kill ratios were back then, but I know for a fact they were higher than we have right now, and that's because fighter pilots in those days were true masters of their art, primarily because their art was not all that complex.  The fighter pilots of today are still looked upon very favorably, they are the romantic icon of young men, and some young women, the first world round, and being icons like that there's nothing wrong with.

Similarly, with BattleTech, you have these brand new war machines, humongous ground-based non-tank vehicles that require enormous skill to pilot, and because there are over 2,000 worlds the Terran Hegemony started up the causes of nobility again to help direct and govern the worlds they could not reach from their single seat on Terra.  That combination turns MechWarriors into that cut above, the human-gods of their time... at least until the bloody Clans come around.

So, up until about 3048 in the BattleTech time-line, MechWarriors were IT, they were the absolute shiznit, untouchable, revered for their skill and their heritage, which may include nobility, like the knights of legend.

So, to round all of my rant out... MechWarrior is a title that means a cut above, a human-god, to be revered, at least until the Clans come around.  Technically, it's never a rank, it's a job description with the heavy connotation.  In Waco Rangers, one of the lower "ranks" is MechWarrior, but that's because they didn't have their own air wing, or any combined arms, to work with at the time.  Some Merc and Periphery units use MechWarrior as a rank, but it's a job description and they simply don't have combined arms to make that rank say something different.  If they did, obviously a tank jock or crew is not going to be referred to as a MechWarrior.

So, MechWarrior is a title, sometimes used as a rank by non-CA units.

Oh, so we're on the same page, just saying it in different ways?  Got it.

I'm not certain who all will respond, because there's only a few of us here, but it has MY vote, LOL

Spot on, a Mechwarrior is a pilot, designated thus that he/she eventually operates a ´Mech unit. But they should stem from the higher ranks in the military service or social hierachy, that Mechs are expensive, and a long training and schooling to handle a Mech is needed, just as modern pilots undergo. And that isn´t cheap. Just as PanserBoxb states:
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And on the Seiko subject, replace the titel of private with cadet, that privates are food-for-feets (ala MW3), and add the titel Leutenant Colonel, below Colonel. oh and delete the Sergeant Mayor.

I like the ranks. Thank goodness you based them on SLDF ranks and not anything else or we would be ripping each others throats out. You cut out some needles factional bickering with that one.