: I haven't read it yet, but how in the world is that possible for a grunt to
: give orders to an elite? From everything we've been led to believe, and
: what seems to be apparent is, the grunts are incapable of intelligence on
: the level of an elite warrior. That's not a knock against grunts, just
: what I thought was the apparent genetic facts. Is this grunt the Einstein
: of its kind, or how in the world does this even work?

: - MacGyver10

The Grunts aren't dumb, they're just treated that way. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Remember that until they rebelled, Grunts were treated as pure cannon fodder; they weren't even given real weapons. By the time players encounter them, they're part of Spec Ops teams and fully integrated into the Covenant as soldiers. But under the Covenant they were the bottom rung, in status if not in rank. One of the highest ranks you could get was Deacon, and that's about it from a military and evidentially bureaucratic standpoint.

We know nothing of Grunt education, or if they receive any sort of formal instruction beyond apparently instilling a fanaticism to end their lives in battle. They live a rather miserable existence, with no clear way out, and habitually abuse narcotics. It's not surprising that the Grunts we see in the games come off solely as occasionally buffoonish warriors.

The books have shown that despite this, there are still Grunts that distinguish themselves; besides Stolt, there's been Dadab and Yayap. None of these characters are portrayed as dumb.