The United States
military came out a well organized and formidable fighting force at the end of
the Second World War. It maintained one of the most well disciplined and
distinguished cadre of soldiers in the world. With experiences garnered
throughout the wartime period, the Army in particular had a large enlisted
force of tradesmen that specialized in varying fields of service. At the time
soldiers not bestowed the leadership title of non-commissioned officer could
attain the ranks of Technician. This rank was formally established on 8 January
1942. The establishment of the grade of Technician gave technical specialists
greater authority by ranking them as non-commissioned officers rather than
differentiating them as senior enlisted personnel.The Technician grades
paralleled the standing pay grade of the time with a Technician 5th Grade being
equivalent to a Corporal, Technician Fourth Grade being equivalent to a
Sergeant, Technician Third Grade being equivalent to a Staff Sergeant and
finally a separate grade itself known as Technical Sergeant being established.
Technicians were paid according to the grade scale, but was however outranked
by his non-commissioned officer counterpart. A Technician was however senior to
the next lowest pay grade and had no direct supervisory authority outside of
their assigned specialty.
Technician grades
were differentiated from existing non-commissioned officer grades by the
authorization of a 'T' to be embroidered below the upper chevrons. Technicians
existed in the United States Army pay scale from 8 January 1942 and were
officially discontinued on 1 August 1948 in the years following the conclusion
of the Second World War. With the discontinuation of the Technician grades, the
United States Army began developing a new system to distinguish specialized
soldiers from their non commissioned officer counterparts and this was
completed on 1 July 1955, when the United States Army introduced four new
grades which were designated Specialist. Specialist ranks effectively replaced
the Technician grades and initially were Specialist Three which was equivalent
to a Corporal, Specialist Two which was equivalent to a Sergeant, Specialist
One which was equivalent to a Staff Sergeant and Master Specialist which was
equivalent to a Sergeant First Class. The Specialist grades carried with them
several distinctions which differentiated them from the Non-Commissioned
Officer grades.
The essential
Specialist rank in itself displays the eagle from the Great Seal of the United
States. It depicts a bald eagle with its wings outstretched holding a bundle of
13 arrows in its left talon which represent the 13 original colonies, and an
olive branch in its right talon. Together the arrows and olive branch symbolize
the United States's desire to maintain peace, but it will always maintain a
state of readiness in preparation for war. The olive branch depicts 13 leaves
and 13 olives, again representing the 13 colonies. The eagle has its head
turned towards the olive branch, which reflects its preference for peace. In
its beak, the eagle clutches a scroll with the motto 'E pluribus unum' which
means "Out of Many, One" in Latin. This eagle rests against a
'shield'. In the higher grades chevrons were added similar to the sergeant
ranks of the non-commissioned officer corps.
Non-Commissioned
Officers retained special privledges not afforded to the Specialist grades.
These were not to reduce the privledges of Specialists but to augument the
privledges and bolster the prestige of the Non-Commissioned Officer Corps.
Non-Commissioned Officers primary duties were leading troops, a privledge not
afforded to the Specialty grades, however Specialists were paid equivalent to
their Non-Commissioned Officer counterparts. The Specialist grades were
proficiency grades presented to soldiers who knew their military occupational
specialties but did not want the responsibility of leadership. Promotions were based on merit and the point
system, so a soldier that excelled in his duties but wished to remain
excelling, expanding his experience level and technical knowledge could advance
the Specialty grade ladder rather than assume the command responsibilities or
command authorities of a Non-Commissioned Officer. Different military
occupational specialties which were the soldier's assigned jobs had varying
transition periods where a soldier would transfer from a Specialist grade to a
Non-Commissioned Officer or in other cases their course track and rank was
determined by the 'slot' which was required to be filled in their organization.
Although senior to
all enlisted grades, all Specialists regardless of their grade were outranked
by all Non-Commissioned Officers from Corporal through to Sergeant Major. This
and the lack of command authority are what differentiate the grades of Specialist
from the Non Commissioned Officers commonly referred to as 'Hard Stripers'.
In 1958, the
Department of Defense added two additional Specialist grades which were
commonly referred to as 'super grades' to allow soldiers expanded opportunities
to advance their careers. With these the Specialist grade went from four ranks
to six and the pay grades changed to reflect the rank designation. Specialist
Three became Specialist Fourth Class which was commonly referred to as SP4,
Specialist Two became Specialist Fifth Class or SP5, Specialist One became
Specialist Sixth Class or SP6, and Master Specialist became Specialist Seventh
Class or SP7. With the addition of the two new ranks, Specialist Eighth Class
or SP8 and Specialist Ninth Class or SP9 completed the Specialist grade charts.
In 1968, the United
States Army established the rank of Command Sergeant Major and subsequently
abolished the two 'super grades' of Specialist Eighth Class and Specialist
Ninth Class without anyone having ever been promoted to these grades. Now, the
pay scale was back to how it originally was prior to the 1958 changes. In 1978,
the grade of Specialist Seventh Class was abolished and finally in 1985, the
ranks of Specialist Sixth Class and Specialist Fifth Class were discontinued.
Soldiers holding these ranks at the time of their abolition were afforded the
opportunity of converting over to a corresponding Non-Commissioned Officer
grade. With the dissolution of all other Specialist grades, Specialist Fourth
Class simply became known as 'Specialist'
and it was henceforth changed from SP4 to SPC to reflect this new
designation.
Although the
designation has changed, the SPC titled is commonly still referred to as SP4
because of how similar the abbreviation of SPC is to SFC which is that
reflecting the rank of Sergeant First Class. Today only the Specialist rank
remains of the Specialist grades with all others having been relinquished to
but footnotes in the history of an Army. Specialist is now generally the next
rank on the path of career progression for enlisted soldiers in between the
path of an enlisted man to that of a Non-Commissioned Officer. It is the
equivalent in the civilian world of an apprentice progressing into the position
of a journeyman in their respective field. With the abolishing of all other
Specialist ranks their was no further method of identifying enlisted
specialists from the Non-Commissioned Officers in leadership positions over
them. Typically a Private First Class is promoted to the grade of Specialist
after two years of satisfactory service and is typically more commonly
presented over the rank of Corporal, with soldiers being promoted to Sergeant
from the rank of Specialist who have passed significant leadership development
courses or assigned to low level supervisory positions.
Thanks for the clarification on the specialist grades. We had Command Sergeant Majors on Johnston island. When I was writing my post and researching the details, I became hopelessly entangled in confusion.
ReplyDeleteMy stepfather was one of the early Specialist 4's when he was stationed at Erlangen, West Germany, 1958-59 with the 4th AD. I have his old Ike jacket and the "Spec Shield" is of a different design, with the arch being supported by two vertical lines, rather than melding directly into the downward point. He also told me that at that time, Specialists were regarded as enlisted versions of Warrant Officers.
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