Specialist Rank, why do we still have it instead of a corporal?

Bring back the spec ranks. There are many who have the technical skills that the Army needs but do not have the leadership capabilities or inclination to be NCOs. During my time in the Army I ran into many E5-E8 soldiers who would have been excellent Spec5-Spec8s because of their technical expertise but should never have been put in charge of troops.

I've stated this on several similar threads, but I'll repeat it again here. At my last duty station I worked with a civilian GS intel guy who was a retired CSM. He was one of the CSMs who made the recommendation to do away with the Specialist track (Spec5-Spec7) that existed at the time. He told me on more than one occasion that it was his biggest regret from his time in the Army. He wished he could go back and change that decision and even extend the Specialist ranks to E8 and E9.

I would honestly like to add step levels to the E4 rank. It kills me when technically advanced Soldiers make SGT but can not be trusted to lead. You can mentor them everyday and every way but they just don't get it and now they are expected to leade because we don't want them RCP'd.

Inertia. The Corps doesn't bother with it.

I think all branches minus Combat Arms (IN, AR, CAV, ARTY, CMBT ENG) should use the Spec rank system and not the NCO ranks. Just my opinion, I mean, they are technical career fields after all.

Answer one: Because most of the E-4's in the Army don't know how to be Corporals.

Should we bring them back, IMHO no, I would rather see a return of the Tech Sergeant ranks. Lets get away from the everyone is a leader concept. Some people are great technicians, but horrible NCO's and vice versa. Some tech people can do things most us can't fathom, but have the people skills of Ivan the Terrible or worse.

If the Army were to bring back the spec ranks, would the Army still keep Warrant Officers? Warrants are the SMEs in their MOS field, so would the spec ranks allow Soldiers to become enlisted SMEs? Would it be easier for a spec rank Soldier to transition to a Warrant Officer? I guess I have more questions than answers.

Get rid of specialist. The Army needs to stop making excuses for soldiers that are great workers but maybe not great soldiers. A soldier is a soldier, the tax payers expect a soldier to be a smart, take charge, individual, and yet the Army as an institution has allowed this worker bee, 9 to 5, mentality continue. Some of the other services expect their troops to take charge when in the absence of leadership, what happens when the specialist is left alone? Does he take charge or just wait around? Are we going to push our soldiers beyond what they are comfortable with or is the Army just a 9 to 5 job?

There are pragmatic aspects to the two ranks. Corporals are in charge of troops, whereas Specialists are theoretically providing similar "value" but not in leadership positions.

Think of it this way. You have two E3s. One goes to a shop. The other goes to a squad. They are equal in every conceivable way. When it comes time to promote them, you promote both. The one in a "Shop" gets promoted to Specialist, because he is specialized in his field, and rates pay for that. The one in a squad gets promoted to Corporal because he is being moved up into a higher leadership position and the pay is commensurate to that.

This is most obvious in the USAF where you have fewer ground structured organizations (squad, platoon, etc). They don't have E4 NCO's anymore (the old Sgt rank was phased out). The E4 is a "technical rank" as opposed to an "NCO rank." However because the Army needs both, the divide exists. On the USMC/USN/USCG sides, we only have NCO at E4 with Cpl/PO3.

The issue with the Specialist/Corporal rank is not that it is there, it's that it's "random." From what I've been able to glean, everyone goes to Specialist, and you can possibly be promoted to CPL, however: what are the requirements? who is the authority? can you be swapped back & forth? does it actually help the soldier (more responsibility, no extra pay)? lots of questions, but it's just "wonky" as a concept. A lot of this is the philosophical differences between USMC & Army though.

I say scrap PV2. Dumbest rank. You're a private that went 6 months without a counseling, here. You're still a private but not a fuzzy. It should be PVT, PFC, SPC, CPL, and so on, in my opinion.

Because the SPC Mafia deems it so, Sham Shielders will never allow CPL for everyone :)