The DS-9 ep "The Valiant" was just on today, and my brother caught a possible flub in the Red Squad rankings.
The first member of the crew that they meet is identified as both a 'chief' and a 'cadet'. Ok, so she, as an officer in training, agreed to participate in the exercise as an enlisted crewperson? That has to be the answer, because the only other one is that the Starfleet enlisted program has cadets and a Red Squad of it's own. "The best of the best of the enlisted"?
Any thoughts on that. Plus, wouldn't Nog, as an acutal ensign, actually outrank ALL of those RS punks? I mean by this time he has been actually posted to DS-9 and has had combat service.