U.S.Army Enlisted Ranks (UPDATED)

[Chuck Anderson]

Hi Everyone!

Presented here is my updated illustration of U.S. Army Enlisted Rank Insignia (hypothetical), for some future time.

Please feel free to use this information if you'd like,( just let people know the source as to authorship.)





[img]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w9/ChuckAnderson_/US.jpg[/img]

Chuck Anderson
Administrator
cbakiteskites@yahoo.com

[Lee Ragan]

By law, Specialist ranks are NOT non-commissioned officers. That was the original purpose to establish them: to give higher pay to specialist personnel without increasing the percentage of NCO's. A First Sergeant is and should be an NCO.
The Army already has a clumsey enlisted rank structure that has been changed over & over again. The addition of all these Specialist and First Sergeants would just add to the fog.
Just my humble opinion.

[Chuck Anderson]

By law, Specialist ranks are NOT non-commissioned officers. That was the original purpose to establish them: to give higher pay to specialist personnel without increasing the percentage of NCO's. A First Sergeant is and should be an NCO.
The Army already has a clumsey enlisted rank structure that has been changed over & over again. The addition of all these Specialist and First Sergeants would just add to the fog.
Just my humble opinion.

Hi Lee!

This IS the Hypothetical Ranks section after all, and anything is possible!!!

One nice thing about fiction is that you can "somehow" make things work (even if, in the real world, "it is NOT how things are done!!!")

It's nice that in fiction, you're not constrained by what CAN'T be done, and you're free to experiment and see how a particular scenario MIGHT be done!

This concept of a change in the Army ranks is actually a rather mundane scenario, (not like invisible invaders from Jupiter or something of the like.)

It's all a part of the "What-If" genre, which to many people is kinda' fun!! There's a site called the "What-If Modeller's Forum", and there are many illustrations there of actual aircraft in many different versions that never came to be.

People could say, "this is NOT how things are done" or "they wouldn't have this in the real world"! And yet people there continue creating, no matter how it may piss-off people whose minds are stuck in the "here and now", people with NO IMAGINATION and who wouldn't know how to create something different if their lives depended on it.

Here in the Hypothetical Ranks section we can create things, and try to imagine "What-If"
and try to imagine how things might work if things were just a little different.

Lee, you ought to try designing some hypothetical ranks! It's actually a lot of fun, and this is the right place to do it! Your creative contributions would be most welcome!

Chuck
ADMINISTRATOR

[ChrisWI]

If anything I think we should reduce the NCO ranks to something like below:

Private - no rank insignia
Private First Class - 1 chevron
Corporal - 2 chevrons
Sergeant - 3 chevrons
Staff Sergeant - 3 chevrons over 1 arc
Sergeant First Class- 3 chevrons over 2 arcs
Master Sergeant - 3 chevrons over 3 arcs
First Sergeant - 3 chevrons over 3 arcs with a diamond in between
Sergeant Major - 3 chevrons over 3 arcs with a star in between

Warrant Officer Second Class - 1 silver bar with 2 black squares
Warrant Officer First Class - 1 silver bar with 3 black squares
Chief Warrant Officer - 1 silver bar with black line down the middle

Second Lieutenant through General of the Army remain the same.

[Caim_Dubh]

I think Mr. Anderson has an interesting take on developing the US Army enlisted rank structure. The system he has developed is somewhat streamlined when one considers the bewildering variety of ranks and insignia the Army had during WWI.

The US Army officer rank structure has survived the last 230 plus years with few, minor changes, but the enlisted structure has changed fairly consistently with adding or deleting ranks and titles. Of course, we all know that the many changes over the years of US Army ranks and insignia have been for many reasons, not the least of which were the somewhat mutually exclusive purposes of recognizing well deserving individuals for the positions they were in, and for simplifying or streamlining the enlisted rank structure.

I somewhat advocate the addition of an additional enlisted pay grade of E-10, to be held by SEAs to general and flag officers, as well as the use of the O-10S 5-star grades for the CSA and CNO, as well as the CJCS and VCJCS. I guess one could make a case for the USMC and USAF to have 5-star officers as well, but it would seem more compelling in the near term for the CSA and CNO. Though I am soon to be a warrant officer myself, I would also rather see warrant officers go the way of the dodo--not literally of course--and have all the services use limited duty officers in similar positions. CW2s and above are commissioned officers anyway--and soon WO1 as well--so really, why would they still be identified as warrant officers. Why not use the terms Sergeant Major General and Captain General as well?

Anyway, keep cranking out those ideas Chuck. They're interesting to say the least.