Almost three decades back I was employed by a British subsidiary of a US arms manufacturer to develop a product for the Star Wars programme. Eventually the system all came together and it was time to carry out a live function test in the States. I was required to attend along with many other civilian staff from other contractors. I filled in all the necessary paperwork and where it asked for my rank I put "civilian" and sent it off.
Almost by return I had a reply asking me for my ""Military Rank Equivalent" as the word civilian was not good enough. As time was pressing I asked my secretary to find out what they needed and she became even more confused than I was. So I contacted our HR function who in turn contacted the parent company HR function in the States. Eventually I had a conversation with a nice chap from HR, USA who suggested I put down "Colonel". His reasoning was that "they don't tend to argue about status with foreign colonels".
Whilst on the trip I was really well looked after though I noticed that several of the other contractors did not fair so well. I have often wondered what these guys put down as their equivalent military rank!
