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feel so much more enlightened by learning about the concept of command, considering i served in the airborne for 6 years
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The Navy is a very different world when compared with other military branches. Unlike most of them, the crew of a ship lives in a very confined space that is shared by all rates, from the last sailor to -sometimes- even an admiral. The Navy has therefore been traditionally much more classist and has kept ranks even more separated than other branches, because otherwise a bigger familiarity of enlisted men with their officers could potentially damage discipline (Or at least so it was thought). What an XO does on a ship has barely an equal in the grounded forces, there are intermediate officers in each company, of course, but not just one as the top of an iceberg. The XO is the last filter or barrier before the captain, and the burden of administrative and daily tasks that overload them is frightening. But if those tasks didn't stop at him, and reached the captain, he would be unable to concentrate in effective command of the ship. The XO, in exchange for such administrative overload has not such a direct responsability in the ship's actions during a battle as the captain.