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When used in a military context, Specialist is one of the fourth lowest enlisted
ranks 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 military 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, and 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", to which 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 solider would wear PFC chevrons beneath which would be
worn additional chevrons to denote specialty level.
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