jhungary
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often time, people were confused with military rank and wonder what did they do and why there are so many different rank in the MIlitary. Well, don't know much about the other Military Organisation, but i do know a lot about the "Weirdest Rank" in the US military.
Let's start with th rank of Specialist
and Corporal
History of the Specialist rank
Historical aspect of Specialist go back to 1942 when US Army wanted to create a seperate branch of professional soldier and calling them Technician. While each rank have their own technical duty, however, the only different between 2 ranks is their command ability. And this is not very well reflected in technical matter for example Radio Operator, Medic and Mechanics. Where ranks does not mean they can do the job better, just they did it for longer period.
So, technician rank was born.
After 1942, the US Army created 3 new rank and put them side by side with the NCO duty of equivent rank, they are Technician 5th Grade
, Technician 4th Grade
and technician 3rd grade
The rank are of the same level and pay grade as their NCO counterpart, Tech 5 pays the same as a Corporal, Tech 4 with Sergeant and Tech 3 the same as Staff Sergeant. The different is, apart from the clear "T" in their rank denote that they are Technician, is the ability to lead troop. While they are of the same rank with their NCO counter part. They are specialised in their own field. And what essentially happening is. NCO outrank Technician with the same rank on ANYTHING, aside from the field the technician specialised at.
So, for example, if a technician was attached to an infantry platoon, a Tech 4 will follow order from a Buck Sergeant while by virtual of their rank, would still outrank a corporal. However, if a tech 4 is specialised in mechanic. Then in mechical matter, a tech 4 would outrank a Sergeant or even a staff sergeant, and the buck sergeant would have to follow order from a Tech 4.
Fast forward to 1948, the Army sees that with the war is over, the need of expanding the militrary rank to accomdate specialist trained personnel are over, the grade technician were abolished and US Army move back to a single rank profile.
However, at 1955, the Army again realised the importance of recruiting a "professional enlisted" branch in their own Enlistment. And the technician grade were revived, due to an expand of Military technology, the sole NCO system alone would have to cover more than Command and Leadership than it actually need. Hence a new Specialist System was borne.
On 1955, 4 Ranks were authorised by the department of Defence
Specialist 3
Specialist 2
Specialist 1
Master Specialist
The goal, however, is different this time, while in 1942, the DoD Do that to regonize the need of a highly skilled technicial personnel, this time around is solely create to seperate the duty between a specialist and a common NCO. While NCO (Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant and Sergeant 1 C) will move toward a leadership and command path, specialist would move toward the technicial part. While two have no intersected interest. The specialist would serve as a backbone of the technical side of the enlistment matter while the NCO would remain command side of the enlistment matter.
Then in 1958, 2 more rank are added and they reverse the name of order and now the rank namign convention is corresponding to the paygrade, Specialist 3 will become Specialist 4, and Specialist 2 will become Specialist 5 and so on, with Specialist 8 and 9 added on it. Aiming to fully complement the NCO corp.
Down fall of Specialist rank come 1968, when the military realise the need of Higher Specialist rank were actually redundant to the NCO corp, as the simple term, you can fix car for 20 years and don't take up command responsibility, at some point of a time, any number of senior specialist would have to take command on a larger number of junior specialist for a technical matter. Hence the need to reestablishment of rank and control are needed. And the Army start picking out Senior Specialist rank. See the elimination of Spec 8 and 9 in 1968, Spec 7 in 1978 and Spec 5 and 6 in 1985
Today, only Specialist 4 remain in the Military, and abbreviation of Spec 4 is SPC, while commonly referred to as "Specialist" or "Spec 4" in ranks.
The administrative difference
While they are of the same grade (both E-4) and pays the same, the administrative different lies on the entry path, command ability and the prospect of Promotion.
For entrance of the rank, almost all Private First Class promoted to Specialist upon review, a selected few who chosing either by professional reason or educational background would went on to become a corporal.
Either because it's required by MOS or that particular soldier have underwent Junior NCO course will they got promoted to Corporal, that's the only avenue of entrant to the rank.
College graduate or Civilian with corresponding experience would enlisted and fast track from a E-1 Recruit upon completion of Basic Training to Spec 4 (E-4) which skipped 2 grades.
Officer cadet (Apart from ROTC and West point) will be administratively appointed as Specialist before entered into either Enlist Commission Program (ECP, commonly known as Green For Gold) or OCS. Upon completion of OCS and ECP, the soldier will administrative promote to E5 Officer cadet (Not a Physical Rank) and discharged from US Army and commissioned into Officer Corp.
As with the historical aspect, Corporal out rank Specialist on any matter apart from the technical matter the Specialist specialise in. However, it is not uncommon to have a special in charge of a group of junior enlisted.
Spec 4 can command squad, when a suitable NCO is absent. And a specialist then is authorised to act as a NCO and command troop. However, the "jump" will only happen if no immediate NCO (Sergeant or Corporal) to fill the post and it will be over once qualified personnel filled the position.
Apart from the entrance path and the command structure. The only different is the promotion path.
Since starting from E-5, all promotion are not automatics, and would be a in need basis, the promotion from E-4 to E-5 require a E-5 spot open in order to be able to promote a E-4 into the position. However, when there are 2 E-4 grade, the NCO E-4 (Corporal) always take precedent. Which mean they will be promoted first. Say like there are 400 E-5 Sergeant spot open this year and 200 Corporal are promotable and 600 Spec 4 are promotable, all the corporal would have been choosen to promote to E-5 First and then along with the most senior 200 Specialist. The other 400 specialist would either keep accumlate promotion point (so will be senior and next in line) or they can choose to switch to the rank corporal when the promotion point is not enough for E-5 but enough for the switch, for Specialist that have either, there are nothing they could do but wait.
So effectively, these "sergeant reject" would get promoted (Or rather, switch) to Corporal and enjoy the priority that it given, and for the next opening of E-5 Billet. That is how E-4 and E-5 got moving in the US army.
An average life in rank of a Corporal is 5 years while the the average Specialist rank is 7 years in service.
In all, Specialist is a unique rank in the US Army.
Let's start with th rank of Specialist
History of the Specialist rank
Historical aspect of Specialist go back to 1942 when US Army wanted to create a seperate branch of professional soldier and calling them Technician. While each rank have their own technical duty, however, the only different between 2 ranks is their command ability. And this is not very well reflected in technical matter for example Radio Operator, Medic and Mechanics. Where ranks does not mean they can do the job better, just they did it for longer period.
So, technician rank was born.
After 1942, the US Army created 3 new rank and put them side by side with the NCO duty of equivent rank, they are Technician 5th Grade
The rank are of the same level and pay grade as their NCO counterpart, Tech 5 pays the same as a Corporal, Tech 4 with Sergeant and Tech 3 the same as Staff Sergeant. The different is, apart from the clear "T" in their rank denote that they are Technician, is the ability to lead troop. While they are of the same rank with their NCO counter part. They are specialised in their own field. And what essentially happening is. NCO outrank Technician with the same rank on ANYTHING, aside from the field the technician specialised at.
So, for example, if a technician was attached to an infantry platoon, a Tech 4 will follow order from a Buck Sergeant while by virtual of their rank, would still outrank a corporal. However, if a tech 4 is specialised in mechanic. Then in mechical matter, a tech 4 would outrank a Sergeant or even a staff sergeant, and the buck sergeant would have to follow order from a Tech 4.
Fast forward to 1948, the Army sees that with the war is over, the need of expanding the militrary rank to accomdate specialist trained personnel are over, the grade technician were abolished and US Army move back to a single rank profile.
However, at 1955, the Army again realised the importance of recruiting a "professional enlisted" branch in their own Enlistment. And the technician grade were revived, due to an expand of Military technology, the sole NCO system alone would have to cover more than Command and Leadership than it actually need. Hence a new Specialist System was borne.
On 1955, 4 Ranks were authorised by the department of Defence
Specialist 3
Specialist 2
Specialist 1
Master Specialist
The goal, however, is different this time, while in 1942, the DoD Do that to regonize the need of a highly skilled technicial personnel, this time around is solely create to seperate the duty between a specialist and a common NCO. While NCO (Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant and Sergeant 1 C) will move toward a leadership and command path, specialist would move toward the technicial part. While two have no intersected interest. The specialist would serve as a backbone of the technical side of the enlistment matter while the NCO would remain command side of the enlistment matter.
Then in 1958, 2 more rank are added and they reverse the name of order and now the rank namign convention is corresponding to the paygrade, Specialist 3 will become Specialist 4, and Specialist 2 will become Specialist 5 and so on, with Specialist 8 and 9 added on it. Aiming to fully complement the NCO corp.
Down fall of Specialist rank come 1968, when the military realise the need of Higher Specialist rank were actually redundant to the NCO corp, as the simple term, you can fix car for 20 years and don't take up command responsibility, at some point of a time, any number of senior specialist would have to take command on a larger number of junior specialist for a technical matter. Hence the need to reestablishment of rank and control are needed. And the Army start picking out Senior Specialist rank. See the elimination of Spec 8 and 9 in 1968, Spec 7 in 1978 and Spec 5 and 6 in 1985
Today, only Specialist 4 remain in the Military, and abbreviation of Spec 4 is SPC, while commonly referred to as "Specialist" or "Spec 4" in ranks.
The administrative difference
While they are of the same grade (both E-4) and pays the same, the administrative different lies on the entry path, command ability and the prospect of Promotion.
For entrance of the rank, almost all Private First Class promoted to Specialist upon review, a selected few who chosing either by professional reason or educational background would went on to become a corporal.
Either because it's required by MOS or that particular soldier have underwent Junior NCO course will they got promoted to Corporal, that's the only avenue of entrant to the rank.
College graduate or Civilian with corresponding experience would enlisted and fast track from a E-1 Recruit upon completion of Basic Training to Spec 4 (E-4) which skipped 2 grades.
Officer cadet (Apart from ROTC and West point) will be administratively appointed as Specialist before entered into either Enlist Commission Program (ECP, commonly known as Green For Gold) or OCS. Upon completion of OCS and ECP, the soldier will administrative promote to E5 Officer cadet (Not a Physical Rank) and discharged from US Army and commissioned into Officer Corp.
As with the historical aspect, Corporal out rank Specialist on any matter apart from the technical matter the Specialist specialise in. However, it is not uncommon to have a special in charge of a group of junior enlisted.
Spec 4 can command squad, when a suitable NCO is absent. And a specialist then is authorised to act as a NCO and command troop. However, the "jump" will only happen if no immediate NCO (Sergeant or Corporal) to fill the post and it will be over once qualified personnel filled the position.
Apart from the entrance path and the command structure. The only different is the promotion path.
Since starting from E-5, all promotion are not automatics, and would be a in need basis, the promotion from E-4 to E-5 require a E-5 spot open in order to be able to promote a E-4 into the position. However, when there are 2 E-4 grade, the NCO E-4 (Corporal) always take precedent. Which mean they will be promoted first. Say like there are 400 E-5 Sergeant spot open this year and 200 Corporal are promotable and 600 Spec 4 are promotable, all the corporal would have been choosen to promote to E-5 First and then along with the most senior 200 Specialist. The other 400 specialist would either keep accumlate promotion point (so will be senior and next in line) or they can choose to switch to the rank corporal when the promotion point is not enough for E-5 but enough for the switch, for Specialist that have either, there are nothing they could do but wait.
So effectively, these "sergeant reject" would get promoted (Or rather, switch) to Corporal and enjoy the priority that it given, and for the next opening of E-5 Billet. That is how E-4 and E-5 got moving in the US army.
An average life in rank of a Corporal is 5 years while the the average Specialist rank is 7 years in service.
In all, Specialist is a unique rank in the US Army.
