Where did all the Specialist ranks go?

They went hard stripe. I worked for a SP6 and SP7 at the time of conversion that had a tough transition to SSG and SFC. Don’t think they ever got used to it.

SP4 stayed around awhile before reverting to simply Specialist. Years later I got chastised for referring to a Soldier as “Spec 4.” I replied I have the right to call them Spec-4’s because I was one.”

SP4 remained, SP5 through 9 all became hard stripes. I came in in 1981 and the only Engineers with specialist rank beyond SP5 were the machinists and they transitioned over to the maintenance branch in the mid 80's.

Bring back the specialist ranks. The Army needs them.

If they brought back SP ranks again, there would be amazing retention levels of subject matter experts, without requiring soldiers to try and become warrant officers.

I thought the were just given "hard stripes" in the equivalent pay grade. But I could be wrong on that. I remember a lot of mid pay grade specialists back in the 1960s.