Talk:United States Marine Corps rank insignia

General of Marines
There is no "General of the Marines". It's "Commandant", and there is no special rank insignia. He is a four-star general. -- 76.212.168.69 Cuervo 01:10, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Huh. That was a while back. Anyways, when I was a recruit, the "this recruit" and "sir" rules applied until the last two or three days, instead of the last week. I won't go into the reason he told us it changed. --Johnny (Cuervo) 00:10, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Another edit: I have, on more than one occasion, heard NCOs and SNCOs refer to their Marines as "troops". Just last week, I heard a sergeant say it in reference solely to Marines under his command. (The sentence also included the word "discipline", and he was quoting an officer.) --Johnny (Cuervo) 00:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC) P.S. - When a senior Marine uses the phrase "Sailors and Marines", he typically says "Marines and Sailors", and sometimes "Marines and Corpsmen". From experience.

Image
Perhaps we could add some examples of the different colors of enlisted insignia? How would we go about this best: showing all three color variations for each rank, or just a couple examples?  bahamut0013 ♠  ♣   14:28, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

First Shirt
I have been in the Corps for 13 years and have never heard a 1stSgt called "First Shirt."205.110.156.226 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 10:23, 21 July 2009 (UTC).
 * Congratulations. I'm sure you've never heard of the Pig War either, but it was real as well. Just because you've never heard of it does not make it untrue.  bahamut0013  words deeds   10:53, 21 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I think First Shirt may be a term used in the past, but after 14 years as a Devil Dog I have never heard it. Some one the 1stSgts I have known would have ripped someone in half if they used that term, but that I'm not saying it is/was not used in the Corps somewhere.  Anyone care to shed some light? Bunns 1775 (talk) 21:41, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Good to see you're in control of a new account. "First Shirt" is kind of like calling the CO "old man"... it's a term of endearment, but you'd never say it in front of him or his staff, lest he take offense.  bahamut0013  words deeds 23:41, 18 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks Marine, just goes to show that the younger generation sometimes know more than the old guys. Bunns 1775 (talk) 12:04, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Comment from a simple civilian: my dad was a Master Gunnery Sergeant and I often heard him addressed as "Top" by Marine officers and Staff NCO's. That was in the 60's so perhaps that is now outmoded. Pwebster59 (talk) 20:53, 14 October 2010 (UTC)
 * First shirt is Air Force slang, it may have bled over to the air wing side of the marine corps, but i never even heard of it there (and i was stationed at a MCAS then at a infantry battalion in my time in). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.76.218.182 (talk) 20:32, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I know this discussion is super old, but If "First Shirt" is USAF slang it's because they inherited it from the USA (i.e., before the air force was a separate service) because "First Shirt" has been army slang since well before WWII.CobraDragoon (talk) 01:53, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Merge
I believe that United States Marine Corps enlisted rank insignia and United States Marine Corps officer rank insignia are completely redundant to this article, and a merger would be in order. There is very little content on the latter pages that isn't here, and I can easily transfer it during a merger. I understand that the other branched have seperate pages for enlisted and officer ranks, but I think those should be moved as well at a later time, under the same argument (redundancy).

If there is no opposition, I would like to perform this merge in one week's time.  bahamut0013  words deeds 09:30, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You mean that you want to move those separate pages onto here? That would be a good idea, and in addition to reformat all of the rank tables to be similar to how they are on this page, that is categorized into commissioned officers, and then sub-categorized into Flag/Generals/Whatever, and Senior/Line/Company/Junior, etc... I say this, because myself personally, in doing some research in ranks have to read multiple, multiple pages to figure such division out, and the tables on this page does it all for you. Did I make sense there?--Terran Officer (talk) 00:49, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Not particularly clear, but I think I got the jist. After the merger, I might play with the table a bit and see if we can work in those subdivisions in a way that doesn't break down the flow of the article or seem jarring.  bahamut0013  words deeds 09:22, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry if I wasn't so clear, but that's what I meant was to organize it so the tables and the ranks are properly subdivided, so that people like me, can have a better understanding of how the rank system is done. For instance, after reading several pages on here and official pages, it seems there's two types of warrant officers, maybe I am wrong but a commissioned warrant (like the navy tables call it) and a non commissioned warrant officer.  This is where I am coming from though, in terms of having the subdivisions on the tables. --Terran Officer (talk) 22:50, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not really sure what they mean by going on about "commissioned" warrant officers... the lack of a commission is what makes WOs distinct from other officers. Maybe it's something to do with WOs in the other branches, but the Corps doesn't make any sort of distinction like that.  bahamut0013  words deeds 05:07, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

(outdent) I've performed the merge.  bahamut0013  words deeds 07:07, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Question on Division/Subdivision
I am doing some research on the various ranks of the militaries, and after reading this page, I have begun to wonder, as I am not quite certain, do the Englisted/NonCommissioned subdivide like the Comissioned ranks do (Generals, Field, Company, Etc...)? That is from reading the table and the page, one could make a 'tree' or whatever showing something like
 * Commissioned
 * Generals
 * Field Grade
 * Company Grade

Does that make sense now, what I am asking? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Terran Officer (talk • contribs) 02:11, 17 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The enlisted side strata is as follows:


 * Staff NCO
 * NCO
 * Non-Rates (or Junior/Lower Enlisted)
 * Semper Fi. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.64.0.252 (talk) 20:55, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Top Sergeant
This is a very questionable statement: "which was an extremely racial term in the late 60's because the white officers and enlisted did not want to refer to blacks and hispanics as "Master", so they coined the term, "Top")". Source?

The term Top Sergeant was used long before the integration of the US armed forces in 1949. 84.23.155.84 (talk) 12:26, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Top was originally referring to how that was the top rank for an enlisted marine (in the 40's maybe?), not in any reference to race or creed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.76.218.182 (talk) 20:35, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Term Limit Separations
Could someone with the correct facts incorporate in to this article the limit for time in service for respective ranks? If I recall correctly, a lance corporal is maxed out at 6 years, a corporal is maxed out at 8 years, a sergeant at either the twelfth or thirteenth year, and staff sergeants at 20 years. Any more? I can't remember for fact what each ones are, and I do think that it is relevant for this article.

Oh and to clarify, I am referring to the Marine's TOTAL time in service, not the time in grade. If someone doesn't pick up sergeant by their 8th year in service, they are separated. That's what I mean. Please provide input. Thank you.

As well, could someone do the same for the Army rank insignia page? I know that it's different, I believe once you make sergeant (E-5) in the Army, you can retire out as one. StrangeApparition2011 (talk) 06:47, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Insignia order?
All of the other insignias for branches of the United States military (Army enlisted and Air Force enlisted for example) go lowest to highest in terms of how the chart is listed, but this one does the opposite, going highest to lowest. For the sake of consistency if there aren't any objections, I'll switch this around to match the other rank insignia articles. - SudoGhost 03:41, 5 February 2012 (UTC)

Forms of Address
Why is this section here? It has nothing to do with Marine Corps insignia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.32.246.128 (talk) 03:39, 3 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Removed, along with other sections that have nothing to do with what the insignia are, the purpose of this page. So called tombstone promotions, besides being banned decades ago, have only explain why someone might hold a rank, and nothing to with what the ranks and insignia are. And so much of this material was totally unsourced, making it dubious word-of-mouth at best. oknazevad (talk) 12:24, 10 December 2018 (UTC)