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.