All soldiers must now serve as corporals before promotion to sergeant

That's a silly comment. Specialist E4s have been around for decades. Are you saying the Army has been 'woke' since before Vietnam?

I'm saying that some things they do don't make sense, but they make even less sense now, that in the past.

MSG Greg Kelly - I was a Broadcast Engineer, and I wasn't interested in becoming a Corporal or a Sargent. I liked the pressure of mission critical work, and keeping the place in great condition. I would lose the hands on work, if I was promoted into a leadership position. I only served two years active, because of the political BS.

MSG Greg Kelly - I was still E2 at Ft. Rucker, but I was assigned to an E5 slot in the Weathervision section. I had both the RADAR and AV sections trying to force a transfer to one of them, because I had helped both with problems when they were short handed or stumped. I always loved to see the light go on over someone's head when a quick drawing, and a few instructions caused a breakthrough in their thinking.
That continued after I left the Army. I got into a conversation with our Microwave uplink division about uplinking from two ground stations to a single satellite transponder. The head engineer told me it was impossible. I told him how to do it. Then I insulted him by telling him that if he couldn't build the adapter in an afternoon that he should quit. He did it, then other companies did the same. My Internet connection uses what I designed in 1983, but I never got credit for the concept.

COL Lisandro Murphy That's exactly what I was thinking. When I was in 30+ years ago there were no Corporal positions in say an S-2. Specialists, all specialists.

There is a place for the Specialist ranks, and a place for NCO's. This push for hard stripes is going to end up with, "so, what is YOUR promotion date"! Bring back all the Specialists ranks!