In the third book of the Brotherhood of War (BofW) series, "The Majors", a character is said to be wearing the four stripes (three arcs and a rocker) of a Staff Sergeant. The rank of staff sergeant was abolished in 1948; the U.S. Army wanted all sergeants to be career sergeants. Four stripes during the Korean War meant Sergeant not Staff Sergeant.

Characters in these books between 1948 and 1958 were also called buck (or three-stripe) sergeants, and Technical Sergeants (both abolished in 1948). Also, there were no Sergeant Majors in the U.S. Army until 1958.

A section of the third book (The Majors), in Chapter 14, Section 1, dated November 11, 1958 reads that the Warrant Officer candidates (or WOCs) were "...in the grades of E-5 through E-7, that is to say Staff Sergeants, Sergeants First Class, or Master Sergeants, or their technical counterparts, Specialists Five, Six and Seven" (capitalization mine). This rank structure corresponds neither to the 1948-May 1958 ranks (E-5 Sergeant, E-6 Sergeant First Class, E-7 Master Sergeant) or the post-June 1958 ranks (E-5 Sergeant, E-6 Staff Sergeant, E-7 Sergeant First Class). Also, the Specialist ranks were then (E-5 Specialist Second Class, E-6 Specialist First Class, and E-7 Master Specialist).