Do you think the Rank structure should be reorganized?

Question

For all of the services, do you think some ranks should removed or added?

Answer 1

The Army really needs to bring back the Specialist ranks for NCO's to make a distinction between leaders and staff folks.

Answer 2

The U.S. Army tried it from 1948 to 1955 and it failed; they eliminated the three stripe sergeant and all the technical grades.  1 Stripe was a PFC, 2 Up was a CPL, 3 Up and 1 Down was a SGT, 3 Up and 2 Down was a SSG and 3 Up and 3 Down was a MSG so in effect there were only six enlisted grades.  They also had a highly unpopular color coded 1/2 size sleeve rank to denote leaders (Gold stripes on Blue background) vs. staff NCO's (Blue stripes on Gold background) most older soldiers continued wearing their old WWII stripes in silent protest of the change.  All this was mostly due to exposure to the British Royal Army during WWII which still to this day operates its army with only three levels of Non-Commissioned Officers.

The non-combat or staff stripes became the Specialist grades in 1955 and at one point in the early 1960's there was the Specialist 9 grade which was equal in pay and allowances to the E-9 Sergeant Major.  It is highly unlikely that the Army will endorse reversing what has taken them 53 year to accomplish in its evolution of the enlisted ranks since 1955.

Answer 3

There is an old saying that applies here!

If it isn't broke don't fix it!!!!!!!

The rank system our military has was developed under the most Darwinist environment ever devised by man. Combat. The system works well, why would you want ot change it?  Do you have some special insite that makes you think it should be changed?  

Answer 4

Not really, but i like to see more openly in advancement to higher rank,  many people wanted sever longer, but can't because of their rank.

Answer 5

I can't say that I can see any benefit to it, other than to sow some temporary confusion.

Of course, there is some confusion between services, such as when an Army Major speaks to a Navy Captain. (an Army Major is senior to an Army Captain, but in Navy ranks, Captains are a higher grade).  Another exampe is that the same rank may have the same insignia but a different name, such as Army Second Lieutenant, Navy Ensign.

Still, it hasn't caused any serious issues up to now.  I'd be generally against changing something that's working fine without some idea of what benefits are expected from the change.  

Answer 6

I very much like the rank structure that we have in the Marines. And I somewhat know the airforce because of my mom. So yeah I think it is fine the way it is.

Answer 7

Leave it alone! I love being Navy and confusing the Army ;0

In all honesty I think they should leave it alone. It took years to figure it out the way it is now. If they mess with it, it will be nothing but a cluster "something".

Answer 8

Why? There have been only a few minor changes in the last 70 years and it seems to be working fine. If anything, the Army needs to stop with the "Specialist 1st Class" garbage and call a soldier by his or her Rank. Cpl, Sgt. etc.