Do you say "junior enlisted" or "lower enlisted"?

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 04:33:28 -0400

How do you refer to your new(ish) Soldiers? I've always said "junior." I asked on another forum, but I thought I would ask here as well. "Lower" seems derogatory and doesn't run parallel with the other titles (junior/senior officer, junior/senior NCO, ?lower?/senior enlisted).

Response by SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL made Sep 5 at 2018 5:46 AM

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 05:46:10 -0400

SFC Private RallyPoint Member good read/share, I always called them by their rank as stipulated in AR-600-20. You can never go wrong with the regulation.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Sep 5 at 2018 5:47 AM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 05:47:39 -0400

Always heard it called lower ranks.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Sep 5 at 2018 10:23 AM

CAPT Kevin B. — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 10:23:20 -0400

I always said Junior which is a better descriptor as the dictionary goes. BTW we call them the Senior Enlisted Leader, not the Upper Enlisted Leader.

Response by SrA John Monette made Sep 5 at 2018 5:42 PM

SrA John Monette — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 17:42:02 -0400

what if you outrank someone who has more time in service? They would not necessarily be "junior". and I agree, "lower" can have a derogatory connotation. as SFC Davis points out, you can't go wrong addressing them by their rank.

Response by LtCol Robert Quinter made Sep 10 at 2018 7:23 PM

LtCol Robert Quinter — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 19:23:31 -0400

I always referred to my people by their rank. If I was referring to a group, I would say "all my Privates through Lance Corporals" or whatever was the appropriate group. People work hard to achieve whatever rank they are assigned, I should at least take the tie to identify them by that rank. Even the newest Private had to earn the right to be a Private instead of a recruit.

Response by Maj John Bell made Sep 10 at 2018 8:21 PM

Maj John Bell — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 20:21:12 -0400

I don't know if it is a Marine thing, or just a me thing.
Pvt-LCpl, collectively Junior Marines
Cpl-Sgt, collectively NCO's
SSgt-SgtMaj, collectively Staff NCO's

2ndLt-Capt, collectively Company Grade
Maj-Col, Field Grade
BGen-Gen, Flag

Don't like the term lower enlisted.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Jan 24 at 2022 3:20 PM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:20:27 -0500

Once you make SFC, your title is now "Senior NCO". So it makes sense to use the term "junior" for grouping the preceeding ranks.

Response by CW5 Mark Smith made Feb 19 at 2022 5:00 PM

CW5 Mark Smith — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 17:00:29 -0500

How about "Soldier"?

Response by MSG Thomas Currie made Jun 30 at 2023 3:08 PM

MSG Thomas Currie — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 15:08:42 -0400

I think the rest of the English-speaking world has a much simpler solution: the entire military consists of Commissioned Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Other Ranks.

Only the US military (and those smaller countries that follow in our image) tries to shoehorn Warrant Officers in as a completely separate category or as some strange kind of not-quite-commissioned Officers (the rest of the world correctly considers them Non-Commissioned Officers).

Occasionally there might be some reason to subdivide one of those categories, such as Junior and Senior Officers (which is often vague) or Junior and Senior NCOs (also ambiguous!); but I don't recall ever seeing a situation where there was a good reason to subdivide enlisted who aren't NCOs.

If a term really is essential, I suppose Junior Enlisted would be most logical as it follows the pattern we use when subdividing Officers or NCOs, but if some soldiers are "Junior Enlisted" then doesn't that mean that some other soldiers must be "Senior Enlisted" - if so, who are they?

Response by SSG Bill McCoy made Jun 30 at 2023 8:39 PM

SSG Bill McCoy — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 20:39:46 -0400

Rank works best; but as for junior vs lower it's semantics. Doesn't matter. If someone is offended by "lower enlisted," well ... it's the world we live in now.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 30 at 2023 7:38 PM

PFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 19:38:19 -0400

Apologies if I'm out of line for putting in my thoughts on a question directed at leadership as a junior enlisted, but I usually see "junior enlisted" go over better than anything else. One notable exception was with a couple of senior NCOs who skipped the "junior" and "senior" designation, referring to only "enlisted" and "NCOs", which didn't seem to ruffle any feathers.