Specialist (rank)
Encyclopedia
Specialist is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, just above Private First Class
Private First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
and equivalent in pay grade to Corporal
Corporal
Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
. Unlike Corporals, Specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s (NCOs). The Army, in attempting to clearly identify rank with just three letters (LTC = Lieutenant Colonel, etc.) for years, identified specialists along with their pay grade (SP4 = SPC @ E-4, enlisted pay grade 4), (SP5 = SPC @ E-5), (Spec Four), etc. (see below).
Recruits with college degrees and officer candidates
New recruits enlisting into the United States Army who have earned a four-year degree, and as of 2006 those with civilian-acquired job skills, will enter as a Specialist.Typically, newly recruited Officer Candidates hold the rank of Specialist when enlisted and during BCT (Basic Combat Training) prior to their official enrollment into OCS (Officer Candidate School) they will be administratively promoted to the Pay Grade of E-5 but hold a rank of Officer Candidate (OC), not Sergeant (SGT).
Trades and specialties
In 1920, the Army rank and pay system received a major overhaul. All enlisted and non-commissioned ranks were reduced from 128 different insignias and several pay grades to only 7 rank insignias and 7 pay grades, which were numbered in seniority from 7th Grade (lowest) to 1st Grade (highest). The 2nd grade had two rank titles: first sergeant, which was three stripes, two rockers, and a diamond in the middle; and technical sergeant, which was three stripes and two rockers. By World War II, the rank of first sergeant had been elevated to 1st Grade and a third rocker was added, with the diamond in the center to distinguish it from master sergeant. The wearing of Specialist badges inset in rank insignia was abolished and a generic system of chevrons and arcs replaced them.Private / Specialist
From 1920 to 1942 there was a rank designated "Private / Specialist" (or simply "Specialist") that was graded in 6 Classes (the lowest being 6th Class and the highest being 1st Class). They were considered the equal of a Private First ClassPrivate First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
(PFC) but drew additional Specialist pay in relationship to the specialist level possessed on top of their base PFC (Grade Six) pay. The classes only indicated experience, not seniority, and a Private / Specialist did not outrank a PFC.
Officially, Specialists wore the single chevron of a Private First Class
Private First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
, because no special insignia was authorized to indicate their rank. Unofficially, a Private/ Specialist could be authorized, at his commander's discretion, to wear one to six additional arcs (1 arc for 6th Class and a maximum of 6 arcs for 1st Class) under their rank chevron to denote specialty level.
Technician
| 1st Grade | 2nd Grade | 3rd Grade | 4th Grade | 5th Grade | 6th Grade | 7th Grade | ||||
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No Insignia |
| First Sergeant First Sergeant First sergeant is the name of a military rank used in many countries, typically a senior non-commissioned officer.-Singapore:First Sergeant is a Specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces. First Sergeants are the most senior of the junior Specialists, ranking above Second Sergeants, and below Staff... | Master Sergeant Master Sergeant A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF... |
Technical Sergeant Technical Sergeant Technical Sergeant is the name of one current and two former enlisted ranks in the United States military.-United States Air Force:Technical Sergeant, or Tech Sergeant, is the sixth enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force, just above Staff Sergeant and below Master Sergeant. A technical sergeant is... |
Staff Sergeant Staff Sergeant Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:... | Technician Third Grade | Sergeant Sergeant Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent.... | Technician Fourth Grade | Corporal Corporal Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4.... | Technician Fifth Grade | Private First Class Private First Class Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term... |
Private Private (rank) A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career... |
| 1st Sgt. | M/Sgt. | T/Sgt. | S/Sgt. | T/3. | Sgt. | T/4. | Cpl. | T/5. | Pfc. | Pvt. |
On 8 January 1942, the rank of Technician was introduced to replace the Private / Specialist rank, which was discontinued by 30 June 1942. This gave technical specialists more authority by grading them as non-commissioned officers rather than senior enlisted personnel. They were parallel to pay grades of the time, going in seniority from Technician Fifth Grade (Grade Five), Technician Fourth Grade (Fourth Grade), and Technician Third Grade (Third Grade). A technician was paid according to his grade, was outranked by the corresponding non-commissioned officer grade but was senior to the next lowest pay grade, and had no direct supervisory authority outside of his specialty. To reduce the confusion this caused in the field, an embroidered “T” insignia was authorized for wear under the chevrons on 4 September 1942. The rank was finally discontinued on 1 August 1948.
Specialist
| E9 | E8 | E7 | E6 | E5 | E4 |
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| Specialist 9 rank insignia (U.S. Army) | Specialist 8 rank insignia (U.S. Army) | Specialist 7 rank insignia (U.S. Army) | Specialist 6 rank insignia (U.S. Army) | Specialist 5 rank insignia (U.S. Army) | Specialist 4 rank insignia (U.S. Army) |
| SP9 | SP8 | SP7 | SP6 | SP5 | SP4 |
On 1 July 1955, three grades of Specialist were established: Specialist Three (E-4), Specialist Two (E-5), and Specialist One (E-6). In 1958 the DoD added three additional pay grades to give
enlisted soldiers more opportunities to progress to a full career with additional opportunities for promotion. Thus the recognition was changed to six specialist ranks, and the paygrade was tied into the rank designation: Specialist Four (E-4), Specialist Five (E-5), Specialist Six (E-6), and Master Specialists (E-7), (E-8) and (E-9) http://www.ncohistory.com/files/shsr.pdf. CSM Daniel K. Elder
Daniel K. Elder
Command Sergeant Major Daniel Keith Elder is a retired United States Army Command Sergeant Major who served as the 12th Senior Enlisted Advisor, United States Army Materiel Command from 2005 to 2008...
goes on to explain, "In 1968 when the Army added the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the specialist ranks at E-8 and E-9 were abolished without anyone ever being promoted to those levels. In 1978 the specialist rank at E-7 was discontinued and in 1985, the specialist ranks at E-5 and E-6 were discontinued."
These specialist ranks were created to reward personnel with higher degrees of experience and technical knowledge. Appointment to either Specialist or Non-Commissioned Officer status was determined by Military Occupational Specialty
Military Occupational Specialty
A United States military occupation code, or a Military Occupational Specialty code , is a nine character code used in the United States Army and United States Marines to identify a specific job. In the U.S. Air Force, a system of Air Force Specialty Codes is used...
. Different Military Occupational Specialties had various transition points, for example in the band career field (excluding special bands at D.C. and West Point) a bandsman could not achieve non-commissioned officer status until pay grade E-6 was attained. In some military occupational specialties, a soldier was appointed either a specialist or non-commissioned officer depending on which particular position or "slot" that he filled in his organization. Cooks were specialists, while a mess steward held the rank of sergeant (E-5 through E-7).
Specialist grades paralleled the corresponding grade of non-commissioned officer (E-4 through E-7) only in terms of pay. The specialist grades, although they outranked the enlisted grades (E-1 to E-3), were outranked by all non-commissioned officers (E-4 to E-9) and lacked the authority conferred on them. This is the major differentiation between a specialist and a "hard striper".
When the so-called "super grades" (E-8 and E-9) were introduced in 1958, the specialist grade titles were changed to Specialist Four through Specialist Seven and the Specialist Eight and Specialist Nine were added on top.
Only the lowest specialist grade survives today, as the higher grades were gradually phased out. Specialist 8 and Specialist 9, which had existed only on paper, were eliminated in 1968. Specialist 7 was abolished in 1978 and Specialist 5 and Specialist 6 in 1985. At that time, the rank of Specialist 4 simply became known as "Specialist," which is how it is referred to today. While the official abbreviation was changed from "SP4" to "SPC" upon the elimination of the SP5 and SP6 ranks, the SIDPERS
SIDPERS
Standard Installation and Division Personnel Reporting System was the main database or, rather, databases for personnel accounting by the United States Army. The Active Army, US Army Reserve, and Army National Guard each had separate, largely incompatible databases, each bearing the name SIDPERS...
database was initially authorized to continue using SP4 until such time as the change could be made at little or no additional expense in conjunction with other system upgrades. The continued use of SP4 on automatically produced documents (transfer orders, leave & earnings statements, unit manning reports, inter alia), hampered the adoption of the new abbreviation (and, to a lesser extent, the absence of "-4" in the non-abbreviated rank) by individual soldiers who naturally viewed the computer produced documents as the final word on what the proper term was.
Today, the rank of Specialist is the typical rank to which Privates First Class are promoted. It is granted far more often than corporal (E-4), which is now reserved as a fast-track rank for personnel who have either passed the leadership development
Warrior Leader Course
The Warrior Leader Course , formerly the Primary Leadership Development Course , is the first course of study in the US Army Non-Commissioned Officer Education System . WLC is a 15-day course that trains Soldiers in the fundamentals of leadership. The course curriculum includes instruction in...
course or have been assigned low-level supervisory or clerical duties.
United States Navy
Between 1943 and 1944, the United States Navy maintained an enlisted rate of Specialist in the Petty OfficerPetty Officer
A petty officer is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotion OR-6. They are equal in rank to sergeant, British Army and Royal Air Force. A Petty Officer is superior in rank to Leading Rate and subordinate to Chief Petty Officer, in the case of the British Armed...
pay grade structure. A seaman would typically be known as a Specialist followed by a letter indicating what field the specialty was held. For instance, a Specialist (C) served as a "Classification Interviewer," while a Specialist (T) was a "Navy Teacher," among several other specialist designations.
The Navy's use of the Specialist grade was eliminated in 1948, when the WWII specialist positions were merged into the standard rate structure.
See also
- CorporalCorporalCorporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....
- SergeantSergeantSergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
- List of comparative military ranks
- Non-commissioned officerNon-commissioned officerA non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
- United States Army enlisted rank insigniaUnited States Army enlisted rank insigniaThe chart below represents the current enlisted rank insignia of the United States Army.This chart represents the U.S. Army enlisted rank insignia with seniority increasing left-to-right inside a given pay grade...
- United States Military PayUnited States Military PayUnited States Military Pay is money paid to members in the United States Armed Forces. The amount of pay may vary by the member's rank, time in the military, location duty assignment, and by some special skills the member may have.-Pay versus Allowance:...
External links
- U.S. Army Enlisted Rank Insignia - Criteria, Background, and Images
- The Short History of the Specialist Rank by Daniel K. ElderDaniel K. ElderCommand Sergeant Major Daniel Keith Elder is a retired United States Army Command Sergeant Major who served as the 12th Senior Enlisted Advisor, United States Army Materiel Command from 2005 to 2008...
, CSM (Ret), USA