[image] When used in a military context, Specialist is one section of the fourth enlisted rank in U.S. Army, just above Private First Class and below Sergeant. It shares this placement with Corporal, which is a rank for non-commissioned officers (NCO).
Originally, there were six separate grades of Specialist, officially known as Specialist 4 through Specialist 9 in ascending order of rank; each such grade parallelled the corresponding grade of Non-commissioned officer (E-4 through E-9) in terms of pay, but without the NCO authority conferred on the latter. Only the lowest Specialist grade survives today, as the higher grades were phased out, beginning with Specialist 8 and 9 in 1965. Specialist 8 and 9 had existed on paper only; there were never any actual promotions to these ranks.
Specialist 7 was abolished in 1978 and Specialist 5 and 6 in 1985. At that time, the rank of Specialist 4 simply became known as "Specialist", which is how it is referred to today.
During World War II, the specialist grade was known as Technician; the designation was done away with in 1948 but the concept was brought back under the new title of Specialist in 1955.
Prior to 1942, an Army Specialist was known as a "Private Specialist" or simply "Specialist". Specialists of this time period wore chevrons of a Private First Class but drew PFC pay in addition to specialist pay in relationship to the specialist level possessed. While no special insignia was authorized for these Private Specialists, typically a soldier would wear PFC chevrons beneath which would be worn additional chevrons to denote specialty level.
| [image] U.S. military enlisted ranks | |||||||||
| E-1 | E-2 | E-3 | E-4 | E-5 | E-6 | E-7 | E-8 | E-9 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force: | AB | Amn | A1C | SrA | SSgt | TSgt | MSgt | SMSgt | CMSgt - CCM - CMSAF |
| Army: | PV1 | PV2 | PFC | SPC - CPL | SGT | SSG | SFC | MSG - 1SG | SGM - CSM - SMA |
| Marine Corps: | Pvt | PFC | LCpl | Cpl | Sgt | SSgt | GySgt | MSgt - 1st Sgt | MGySgt - SgtMaj - SMOMC |
| Navy: | SR | SA | SN | PO3 | PO2 | PO1 | CPO | SCPO | MCPO - CMCPO - MCPON |