Calling all military know-it-alls.

There is only Specialist and Corporal (both of which share the grade of E-4) Corporal is an NCO position and given soldiers to lead and be in charge of, and Specialist is just a soldier in the squad.

Lifer? Ha ! ! !

We used to say that NCO stands for "no chance on the outside."

I guess I'll just have to continue to call him goofball.

It does.

With a sweet, sisterly smile when you do so, no doubt.

Mo and I talked to his teacher this morning about his idea for the project and she gave us some good advice -- narrow it down, then narrow it down some more. (I'm wishing Mo had gone for my idea of How To Make An Electromagnet.)

I'm going to talk to Mo after school and propose that he do it as a "What can you know about a soldier just by looking at their uniform" sort of thing.

Run through the basics of rank then look at some photos and decipher something about the soldier.

In general, the terms commisioned officers and warrant officers come from the english structure.
Staff rank - officers of one star and above (full colonel and up) these keep their rank upon retirement.
Commisioned officers - these have been commissioned by the Head of State to carry out certain duties. They can resign that commission, but it is up to the head of state to accept it.
Warrant Officer - these have a warrant to carry out duties. The difference is that to be commisioned has a historically higher importance.
(Non- Commissioned) Officers - These are common soldiers recognised for their experience, training and ability who are promoted to help organise soldiers and maintain discipline.
Soldiers - they are enlisted and are contracted to perform duties as required.

NCO's and soldiers are discharged when their term of enlistment is complete.

Comissioned officers wear rank on the shoulder, others wear their rank on their arm. The first enlisted rank was a chosen man who wore a ribbon tied around his arm. This was called tape, and later called stripes.

The first commissioned rank was a Lieutenant to the King and they would typically be in charge of an entire wing of the army. To sort out hierarchy amongst Lieutenants, some would be given a Captaincy. The term General was more an institutional appointment, as in post-master general or attorny general, but as armies required more logistics due to their size, generals made their appearance in the army.

Colonel - can talk to God over the phone and is on first name terms with God's secretary
Major - sees God at the annual Christmas party, but tries to keep the conversation to a minimum
Captain - tries to avoid running into God around the base in case God asks a pertinent question
Lieutenant - trembles in fear and stutters if God is mentioned
Second Lieutenant - wets himself and runs off screaming if God is mentioned
Regimental Sergeant Major - he is God

There are a lot of ranks that weren't around in this list when I was in the army between 1990 to 1994.

The Spec 5 and above; the E5 first Sgt. and others. When were they in the ranking system?!

I left the army as an E4 specialist.

"By the way, rank determines precedence, not graduation from the USMA. "

True, but any ROTC or OCS graduate that is commissioned BEFORE USMA graduation in any particular commissioning year has their Date of Rank (precedence) moved past the USMA graduation date. So USMA graduates will always have date of rank over all other commissioning sources in any commissioning year. Date of rank from USMA past 2LT is completely irrelivant, since you will have a promotion date which is your new date of rank.

But as was stated, once on active duty nobody cares about that stuff. In the 2nd LT and 1st LT ranks, the lines are pretty blurred. Many times you can find units where a 2nd LT is in charge of 1st LTs. In my battalion, as a junior officers our Battalion Commander would assign 2LTs into speciality platoons, or XO slots ahead of 1 Lts that he didn't think were ready to move on.