I was watching late night news the other night, as I usually do - Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Not so strange to some of you but I live in Auckland, NZ…
They had an honor roll for the newly deceased in Iraq. Many of those acknwoeldged were ‘specialists’. I thought the least I could do to honor them was to find out what a ‘specialist’ actually does/ is?
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No doubt things have changed a lot since I was in the Army (66-68). It really depends on your MOS. :~) Okay that means “what your job is”. A Specialist would be different depending on if you were Infantry, Medic, Artillery or ---------. Roughly speaking a Specialist (way back then) had a job but was not “in charge” of other men. The lowest ranking Specialist would be above a Private but below an NCO (Non Comissioned Officer).
Aloha,
Larry
From my own background of 14 years ago a specialist is one that has been trained to support the forces in a role that requires specific skills. This could be technical or in using a special type of device.
It is also an Army rank or pay grade one above Private First Class (PFC.) which is E-3 (enlisted pay grade 3) that is known as “Specialist, E-4” or “Enlisted pay grade 4”.
This is the last enlisted step before becoming an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer). Generally a specialist has not attended the P-NCO (Primary NCO School) or the A-NCO (Advanced NCO) schools making them inelligble to lead a small unit.
Tom got it right. It’s really a left over from years past. Used to be once you hit E-3 (PFC) you followed one of two tracks, if you were in a skill MOS you became a specialist (SPC-4=E-4, SPC-5=E-5, SPC-6=E-6), if you were in a combat arms MOS you followed the normal Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant route. Specialist is still used because not every E-4 is qualified to lead troops (as a Corporal), and they haven’t thought up another rank to use.
If you are in a leadership position, they make you a corporal (same pay grade, different rank). I was a fire team leader as a corporal because I was waiting to go to PLDC (primary leadership development course), and waiting to have enough time in service to get promoted to E-5. You don’t see many corporals anymore because it’s pretty easy to make E-5. My situation was unusual because I went to college before enlisting, so I went in as an E-4, but had to wait 18 months to get promoted to E-5.
I’m not positive this is correct, but two old Sergeants Major both explained it this way. And if the Sergeant Major says so, it must be true :).
Chris