Specialist (rank) - Specialist

Specialist

On 1 July 1955, four grades of Specialist were established: Specialist Three (E-4), Specialist Two (E-5), Specialist One (E-6), and Master Specialist (E-7). In 1958 the DoD added two additional pay grades to give enlisted soldiers more opportunities to progress to a full career with additional opportunities for promotion. Thus the recognition was changed to six specialist ranks, and the paygrade was tied into the rank designation: Specialist Four (E-4), Specialist Five (E-5), Specialist Six (E-6), Specialist Seven (E-7), Specialist Eight (E-8) and Specialist Nine (E-9). CSM Daniel K. Elder goes on to explain, "In 1968 when the Army added the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the specialist ranks at E-8 and E-9 were abolished" because they were notional rather than actual. "In 1978 the specialist rank at E-7 was discontinued and in 1985, the specialist ranks at E-5 and E-6 were discontinued."

These specialist ranks were created to reward personnel with higher degrees of experience and technical knowledge. Appointment to either Specialist or Non-Commissioned Officer status was determined by Military Occupational Specialty. Different Military Occupational Specialties had various transition points, for example in the band career field (excluding special bands at D.C. and West Point) a bandsman could not achieve non-commissioned officer status until pay grade E-6 was attained. In some military occupational specialties, a soldier was appointed either a specialist or non-commissioned officer depending on which particular position or "slot" that he filled in his organization. Cooks were specialists, while a mess steward held the rank of sergeant (E-5 through E-7).

Specialist grades paralleled the corresponding grade of non-commissioned officer (E-4 through E-7) only in terms of pay. The specialist grades, although they outranked the enlisted grades (E-1 to E-3), were outranked by all non-commissioned officers (E-4 to E-9) and lacked the authority conferred on them. This is the major differentiation between a specialist and a "hard striper".

When the so-called "super grades" (E-8 and E-9) were introduced in 1958, the specialist grade titles were changed to Specialist Four through Specialist Seven and the Specialist Eight and Specialist Nine were added on top.

Only the lowest specialist grade survives today, as the higher grades were gradually phased out. Specialist 8 and Specialist 9, were eliminated in 1968. Specialist 7 was abolished in 1978 and Specialist 5 and Specialist 6 in 1985. At that time, the rank of Specialist 4 simply became known as "Specialist," which is how it is referred to today. While the official abbreviation was changed from "SP4" to "SPC" upon the elimination of the SP5 and SP6 ranks, the SIDPERS database was initially authorized to continue using SP4 until such time as the change could be made at little or no additional expense in conjunction with other system upgrades. The continued use of SP4 on automatically produced documents (transfer orders, leave & earnings statements, unit manning reports, inter alia), hampered the adoption of the new abbreviation (and, to a lesser extent, the absence of "-4" in the non-abbreviated rank) by individual soldiers who naturally viewed the computer produced documents as the final word on what the proper term was. While extremely rare, SP4 is still used. SPC is what should the abbreviation used by the Army.

Today, the rank of Specialist is the typical rank to which Privates First Class are promoted after two years of service. It is granted far more often than corporal (E-4), which is now reserved for personnel who have either passed the leadership development course or have been assigned low-level supervisory (with two or more soldiers under direct command). Corporal is not a common rank in the Army these days. Not all deserving individuals in low-level supervisory duties receive the lateral promotion to corporal.