What is the difference between a Specialist and a Corporal in the Army? Inquiring Marine minds want to know.

Don't forget the SPC 4 mafia.

never saw the difference. when I was in the Army and a spec/4. I considered myself no better than a private. Only when you received three stripes and called sarge, were you given true respect. Other than that you earned your respect from e-4 down by being the Alpha male. sorry but very true. At least until you got into combat, then everybody wanted to know what to do next, until they became hardened to blood and guts, and too many of our young men are becoming accustomed to it......time to end all of this or we will have a generation of PTSD, Men.

Spec-4’s shoulder the brunt of the CPL’s terminal iniquities. I wanted no part of PLDC personally. I worked for my commendations. One needn’t achieve mere rank to form unit/platoon/squad cohesion and excellence in performance.
Hooah.

"Spec-4’s shoulder the brunt of the CPL’s terminal iniquities." Can't say that was ever the experienced I had or witnessed, but damn that's funny!

SSgt (Join to see) - You go in to Basic as an E-4, but after basic, you go to OCS to get your bar.

In an effort to encourage those with degrees to enter service as an enlisted soldier rather than as an officer, branches (initially the Army) began to allow persons with degrees to disenroll from the GI bill and enter service under the Student Loan Repayment program if they came in as enlisted. For me, it made sense at the time because it paid off my student loan debt after 3 years of service (1/3 each year) on an 8 year contract (minimum of 3 active/remaining active or irr) . The payments are considered taxable income, but the tax liability of a lower enlisted soldier is minimal, so it didn't put in in a position of owing money at tax time. For one who isn't sure about remaining in sevice as a career or will be assigned to special duty assignments outside of their MOS because of those civilian degrees (often my case ), completing an initial enlistment debt free is very compelling.

Hitler was a corporal

Hell I remember when Custer was a CPOL.

CPT Toby Forbes - most L/Cpls hold NCO billets way before ft hey get promoted. At least it was like that when I was serving

when Stationed in Germany and Ft. Riley they had no Problmmaking a Spec 5- sgt. of guard one day.. and a guard two days later. with a spec 6 as SOG

The Army doesn’t promote to Specialist. It’s an advancement. Soldiers are promoted to the NCO ranks. One caveat, a Specialist who laterals to Corporal is appointed not, promoted.
All advancement/appointment from Pv2-SSG recommendations are at the local level. Everything else (SFC-CSM) is DA select.

SSG (Join to see) - Does the Army still give out warrant certificates when pinning on new ranks?
A quick google search showed "Certificate of Promotion" (from both 1993 and 2018). I can't verify whether the 2018 was official or in-house as I couldn't get the form number off the bottom of it.

Same for me Fred. Back in the late 70's I was promoted from PFC directly to CPL. Never was a SPC. The benefits were many and so was the responsibility. All the privileges of an NCO. Same pay grade as an E-4 but none of the crap jobs. If you were on your way to becoming a Sergeant it was a great deal. Worked great for me.

SPC (Join to see) - I was in in the eighties. My MOS was 31C. It was obsolete when I joined! 31C was encrypted AM teletype. We were called RATT (radio and teletype). We were useful that when we hit a new site we were op w/in 10-15 minutes passing traffic - till the "newer" stuff were up and running (31M bastards - haha). If our commo or comsec ever went down in the field, the FNGs went to KP, we pulled guard duty, LPOP, courier duty, dug latrines, played opfor, and played hearts. Lots and lots of hearts. My guess as to why scores never dropped was because the technology keeps changing towards better, faster, lighter, and more secure equipment - and you don't even have to wait a generation. It changes in a few years. The Army is not going to promote w/in a MOS that quickly becomes obsolete, IMHO. Best of luck to you.

I was hard striped when I passed the e-5 board and had my points but had not been to pldc

I strongly agree with this one.

In order to be promoted to E-5 there has to be an open slot in your MOS. If there isn't one available there isn't anywhere for you to go. So you may end up a CPL at that point as well. Sometimes it has to do with the level of leadership skills and lack of NCOs in your unit.

Hell of a lot of 11b SPC's

SPC Dick you are not required to be promotable to be laterally appointed to the rank of CPL. Please reference AR 614-200.

1LT William Clardy - I would certainly hope that's true, sir.

Specialist and Corporal are the same paygrade but different rank as a Corporal is an NCO and appointed a lateral move for there potential leadership skills and to benefit of the unit.

You don't have to be promotable....usually just be occupying an E-5 slot and not have any other NCO's who can fill it.

CSM, I love the SUPPOSED. In your response. If I were king for a day every SPCp would be a Corporal. If they aren't ready for NCO responsibility, they shouldn't be boarded.

Back in the "day" we also had a lot of Acting Jacks ( Sp4 wearing Sergeant stripes ). Our Infantry platoons were like down to 25 to 30 personnel. We had a Staff Sergeant for the Platoon Sergeant position and all other leaders were AJ's. That's what happens when you have a Draw Down like they are trying to do now. Thank goodness Vietnam was just getting over and we didn't have anything happen again til around 1980 with Iran.

My time in Korea I was promotable but wasn't reaching points and I got so tired of the soldiers' tomfoolery that I pushed to at least get corporal. 1SG wanted me to write him a letter explaining why, so I did, and soon after (with support from my PSG) was laterally promoted and right away I took a squad. One was a troubled soldier (unintentionally, he just had no sense or awareness) that I got squared away, coached and represented a soldier that won SOM, and headed up the battery's remedial PT, getting 13/16 joes within tolerance. I of course had some screw ups that got me some good ass chewings, but, like I told my squad or individual soldiers when I had to chew them out, it's nothing personal, take it as a learning experience and drive on.
I've seen plenty of corporals just checking the blocks to skate by, not fully understanding they're no longer a specialist and are now a leader, or the ones that immediately start acting like a sergeant major, but I eased myself and my former peers into my role as their NCO. I loved it, I absolutely loved being an NCO, even if corporals catch a lot of flak and grief; it's challenging, and if you prove your merit as a CPL, there isn't much you can't do so long as you're in policy and regs.

SGT Glenn E Moody and MSG Frederick Pankey, I can't recall ever getting yelled at for getting my hands dirty alongside my troops, not as a corporal nor as a sergeant.

Maybe I was just lucky that leading by example and accomplishing the mission were still considered important leadership criteria back then, at least in the units I found myself.

1LT William Clardy - well in my case it was that 10 minutes before i was a PFC and just one of the guy's and now i had to be in charge of them. not one of them anymore. so i was helping them. as i did when i was one of them. for the rest of my time i helped to lead by example. i would not order anyone do anything i would not do myself. the stripes did not go to my head like we see so many times.

Corporal is the oldest rank in the NCO corps but does not get an NCOER

SFC(P) (Join to see), for some reason your comment makes me wonder if there might be a connection between the "oldest rank" and the "oldest profession"...

SPC (Join to see) - Military personnel, like all other people, don't like change. However, we must be careful not to cling too tightly to the past. The abbreviation SP4 is no longer authorized. With the deletion of the SP5-SP9 ranks, the abbreviation SP4 was also deleted in lieu of the new SPC abbreviation. At this point in time, there should be precious few people in Army service who have even heard of the Specialist being referred to as "Spec 4". Truth be told, they either need to bring the old specialist rank structure back, or remove it completely, in my opinion. My vote would be to bring it back completely.

In the Army Command policy it still says abbreviation SP4.

SPC (Join to see) - I'll refer you to Army Regulation 600-20, Army Command Policy, dated 30 March 1988, SUMMARY of CHANGE, section 1-6, Notes, item 5:

"5. Abbreviation SP4 will change to SPC effective with the implementation of Standard Installation Division Personnel System-3 (SIDPERS~3) Version I scheduled for fiscal year (FY) 1988"

https://fas.org/man/dod-101/army/docs/ar600-20/ar600-20.html

YES. I my specialty MOS (Air Traffic Control) there were lots of SP4 and SP5. Doing it this way you worked your job and didn't get burdened with company duties.