What are your thoughts of getting rid of Specialist and making E-4 only Corporal, upon completion of BLC and a board perhaps?

Fine the way it is now. Not a big advocate of forcing people into NCO ranks their first enlistment and I think a lot of SGT get promoted way too early and before they are really ready for it. I think having the first enlistment being largely E1-E4 is perfect for those that want to make a decision on which way to go.......NCO or Officer. Also, a large chunk of E1-E4 enlist just for one enlistment for the experience and the benefits and have no real interest in being an NCO. Forcing them all to be junior NCO's I think would be a mistake and lead to an increase in disciplinary issues not to mention folks shying away from enlisting in the first place.

For that to happen, I think we would need a full restructuring of the E grades. I generally do not agree. I find an inherent need in the SPC rank. There's many details or assignments I wouldn't let a PFC lead. I think it would be more beneficial to actually hold CPLs to the standard we used to. They're technically NCOs but usually only get used to be NCOs for details no SGT would accept. I like how the USMC does it, CPLs are TLs and SGTs are SLs. Either something along those lines OR, in certain MOSs or positions have CPLs lead junior NCO positions such as TLs.

I think specialist is a needed rank. Some E-4’s are not ready to take on NCOs but have become decently honed on their skill set in their MOS. As others have said also it’s a good crossroads point for soldiers on their first hitch to decide if they want to stay in and go the NCO lane or leave service or switch over to the officer side through the various programs.

I do think the army needs to do a better job of distinguishing a specialist from a corporal. As someone new to the army as a direct commission I thought it weird to have two ranks that hold the same grade, but supposedly different responsibilities. Now granted I am AMEDD so I am sure we are more specialist heavy vs corporal, but now that I’ve learned more, I would be handing a lot more soldiering duties to a corporal than the specialist to see how their leadership is and how they get tasks done. I would expect a little more big picture out of them in terms of how they approach tasks vs a specialist.

So no I don’t think we need a different rank structure, I think we in the army just need to do a better job of treating the two sides of the E-4 tree the way they should be treated and were designed to be used.