A question about rank

The Highway Man said:
The Corporal is the backbone of the British Army. ;)
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The British NCO's are probably the best trained. I´ve learned a lot of things after having been deployed with the British Army.

I once met a British veteran who had been in The Grenadier Guards back in the seventies. Two people he remembered and hated to this day. His Sergeant Major and his Corporal as he described respectively as a hysterical homosexual and a little Nazi
 
The Highway Man said:
The Corporal is the backbone of the British Army. ;)
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Now that I agree with 1000000%

brinktk said:
Usually the Army only promotes someone to corporal in what is called a lateral promotion from specialist to corporal. There may be any number of reasons that they are made a corporal as opposed to a SGT such as; doesn't meet time in grade or time in service requirements, there aren't enough SGT's in a unit and they need to quickly fill an NCO billet without going through the administrative red tape and timeline to promote them to SGT, or it could just be to give a soldier some leadership experience before they are groomed to be promoted.

In the US Army, SGT's are generally the first line supervisors of soldiers down at the team level...Specialists are simply proficient lower enlisted in their MOS and basic soldier skills. Corporals are used to fill a gap if it is needed between the two...but most the time if that gap exists then the squad leader or platoon sergeant simply puts a specialist in that first line supervisor position, and after a time to prove themselves, send them to the board to get promoted without the formality of making them a corporal because the pay is exactly the same.
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In the British Army (or it was when I was there) full corporals (as opposed to lance corporals) are usually section commanders, with Lance Corporals as 2 i/c. As The Highway man quite rightly stated corporals are the backbone of the British Army.
 
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On my very first day in the U.S. Army, or possibly it was the second day, in Reception Company , a place where not much happens, strictly an administrative company where new recruits get their physical exams, shots, paperwork, before going to a basic training company, a Corporal entered the barracks. A Corporal, even then was a rare rank in the U.S. Army and this gentleman had an Irish Brogue accent that said that he had recently gotten off the boat from the Emerald Isle, Possibly a former member of HM Forces. This worthy informed us new recruits that our latrine looked like a sh**house. Some wiseacre spouted off that that was the exact purpose of the room. I recall that the Hibernian Corp smacked the individual in the nose and sent him to clean said chamber.
 
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I remember a Southern Irish bloke during basic training in the RAF, he said once "Oi moight be Irish, but I aint tick." Translation "I might be Irish but I'm not thick.":confused:

During an exercise in Germany in 1980 I was tasked to supply a Scottish Regiment with my section. On arrival I asked a bloke where the CP was, he replied "grunt grunt grunt, grunt Jimmy." Translation, I have no idea what he said, I only speak English.
 
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BritinAfrica said:
I remember a Southern Irish bloke during basic training in the RAF, he said once "Oi moight be Irish, but I aint tick." Translation "I might be Irish but I'm not thick.":confused:

During an exercise in Germany in 1980 I was tasked to supply a Scottish Regiment with my section. On arrival I asked a bloke where the CP was, he replied "grunt grunt grunt, grunt Jimmy." Translation, I have no idea what he said, I only speak English.
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There is a scientific explanation for this.

Once upon the time; the Scottish and the Irish spoke a comprehensive language. The Scots and the Irish were in the forefront of the civilization. Then according to Professor Who Havenoclue, from the University of Macallan something dramatic occurred in Scotland and in Ireland. The introduction of whisky changed the societies profoundly. There is a strong evidence of this still, when Scottish males are wearing skirts and cannot see the issues with doing so. The other strong evidence is how the implementation of scotch had on the society when it changed what once was the English language. The Irish followed the same pattern of transformation as a result of the structural change of the society. However, the change was not so dramatic in Ireland when the dress codes never changed, but it was rather close.


W. Havenoclue “Scotland and Ireland; what went wrong?”, The Journal of Drinking, vol. 6. no 4, 2014 pp. 213-218
 
When I was in the US Army 1971-1974, if they needed someone to have the responsibility of a SGT without paying them for it, they would give you the stripes, but you would get paid E4 pay. I was an acting SGT for a year, but the Army wanted me to re-up for 3 years to get the pay. A corporal can give a lawful order, a specialist can't , even Spec 5 or higher. I could as an "acting jack" if I had too. I was the head of camp security in Korea. After 5pm, if I was on duty, I was acting camp commander, as the CO lived off base. Pretty good job for an E4.
 
In the British military a man could be made an "acting" higher rank paid or unpaid in that higher rank.

In many ways it was extremely unfair, if a Corporal (or below) was made acting unpaid Sergeant he had to live in the Sergeants Mess and pay mess bills which can get very expensive on a Corporals pay.
 
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That was me in the late 80s, I was a substantive Corporal in South Armagh on weapons intelligence. There was no available Corporals mess accomodation, so I was made up to local Sergeant unpaid, living in the Sgts Mess, I only used the mess to sleep as I spent most of my time out on the ground on terrorist investigations. It cost me a bloody fortune on a corporals wages!
 
The Highway Man said:
That was me in the late 80s, I was a substantive Corporal in South Armagh on weapons intelligence. There was no available Corporals mess accomodation, so I was made up to local Sergeant unpaid, living in the Sgts Mess, I only used the mess to sleep as I spent most of my time out on the ground on terrorist investigations. It cost me a bloody fortune on a corporals wages!
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There was an airman below the rank of corporal promoted to acting unpaid Sergeant, from what I hear he struggled to pay his mess bills, I think that he demanded that he be reduced to either Corporal or Senior Aircraftsman. In the RAF there were no Corporals messes, they lived and ate with the riff raff.
 
Some of the Guards regiments have Lance Serjeant. Some cavalry regiments also have Corporal of horse, and Regimental Corporal Major.
 
Kesse81 said:
Do you Britts still use the rank Lance Sergeant?
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If I remember correctly a Lance Sergeant is a Guards Regiment full corporal, but instead of two stripes he wears three white stripes, while a sergeant wears three gold stripes. Lance Corporals wear two strips instead of one as usual in other corps or regiments. Queen Victoria didn't like the single stripe worn by a Lance Corporal, she demanded he wore two.
 
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