{"id":459,"date":"2011-04-29T03:11:42","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T03:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/?p=459"},"modified":"2013-03-23T22:56:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-23T22:56:24","slug":"military-ranks-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/military-ranks-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Military Ranks in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since the Thai military overthrew the monarchy in 1932, there has been a coup on average every 4 years since. They typically install their own government and constitution after each coup. The last one was in 2006, and there are always rumors of more to come. The thousands of generals in the Thai military play a huge role in government, albeit unofficially and in the background. But that\u2019s another story . . .<\/p>\n

Point is, if you\u2019re interested in following the soap opera of Thai politics, you\u2019ll often see someone of rank make press statements and such. This post will help you figure out how important the person talking really is.<\/p>\n

There are four branches: Army, Navy, Airforce, and Police.
\n\u0e17\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23 ta4 haan5 – soldier
\n\u0e17\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23\u0e1a\u0e01 ta4 haan5 bok2 – Army
\n\u0e17\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23\u0e40\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d ta4 haan5 reua1- Navy (soldier boat)
\n\u0e17\u0e2b\u0e32\u0e23\u0e2d\u0e32\u0e01\u0e32\u0e28 ta4 haan5 ah1 gaat2 – Airforce (soldier air)
\n\u0e15\u0e33\u0e23\u0e27\u0e08 dtum1 ruat2 – Police<\/p>\n

The ranking systems of each branch are generally the same, but with minor changes in rank names, rank abbreviations, and rank insignia on the uniform. The ranking system mostly matches that of western militaries, too. That said, it\u2019s no easy task to memorize any of it. But I do recommend taking a quick glance here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just going to go over the very basics, with the very most need to know information. I\u2019ll also give a few tips to make memorization easier, if you\u2019re the bit too dedicated type . . .<\/p>\n

\u0e0a\u0e31\u0e49\u0e19, \u0e22\u0e28 chan4, yot4 – rank<\/p>\n

The three levels you\u2019ll often see in both university and military ranking are below, with 1 being the highest:
\n\u0e15\u0e23\u0e35 dtree1 – 3
\n\u0e42\u0e17 to1 – 2
\n\u0e40\u0e2d\u0e01 eak1 \u2013 1
\nKeep in mind that \u0e15\u0e23\u0e35 is also used for bachelors, \u0e42\u0e17 for masters, and \u0e40\u0e2d\u0e01 for PhD students. The word \u0e15\u0e23\u0e35 almost sounds like \u2018three\u2019, and \u0e42\u0e17 almost sounds like \u2018two\u2019 (not a coincidence!).<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t go into too much detail, but if you look at the Wikipedia list, you\u2019ll notice that each military branch is divided up into three sections: the lowly soldiers, mid-level officers, and high-ranking officers.<\/p>\n

Tricks to remember the abbreviations and the ranks:
\nThe abbreviation and rank for both the Army and Police are almost exactly the same, except \u0e15. is added in the abbreviation to signify it\u2019s Police (\u0e15 for \u0e15\u0e33\u0e23\u0e27\u0e08). The abbreviations for both the Airforce and Navy are nearly the same, but the full pronunciations are different. In the Navy ranks, you\u2019ll often see \u0e40\u0e23\u0e37\u0e2d, \u0e19\u0e32\u0e27\u0e32, and \u0e19\u0e32\u0e27\u0e35 \u2013 all three simply mean \u2018boat\u2019.<\/p>\n

You also do not need to memorize the rank of Field Marshall, as it no longer exists. The power of Field Marshall is now held only by the King of Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How is the Thai military ranking system set up?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[10208,178,10341,10340],"tags":[275292,109544,192199,275291,7873,275288,275289],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-beginner","category-history","category-intermediate","category-thailand-politics","tag-airforce","tag-army","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-police","tag-rank","tag-soldier"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/thai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}