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I have a few buddies at work that are Marines, and one of them gets into pissing contests with the E-7's and E-8's from other branches because they tell him that he is not a senior NCO. Every other branch does not consider their NCO's to be senior until they reach E-7. Inquiring Army minds want to know!
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
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The main reason a Staff Sergeant in the Marine Corps is consider a Senior / Staff Non-Commissioned Officer is due to the fact they must be selected for promotion by a convened board of senior leaderships conduct at Headquarters Marine Corps. Other branches do not do this until the E-7 grade. Additionally the responsibilities and expectations of Staff Sergeants, as well as that of Sergeants and Corporals are higher than that of other services (e.g. SSgt- Platoon Sgt, Sgt- Squad Leader, Cpl- Team leader).
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GySgt John O'Donnell
You are correct, due to the conversation though I wanted to use terms that were mutually understood by all . That said, my original post referenced "Senior / Staff" in attempted to explain the relationship of the ranks. In short, Marines have NCOs and Staff NCOs. while other Services have Junior NCOs and Senior NCOs.
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MSgt (Join to see)
GySgt John O'Donnell
Roger that Gunny! Misunderstood but understand now! Semper Fi!
Roger that Gunny! Misunderstood but understand now! Semper Fi!
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GySgt John O'Donnell
They are the same to the extent that as the discussion topic addressees, Staff Sergeant's/E-6s are consider "senior", where in the other services you are not "senior" until E-7.
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Here's a non-traditional way to solve this: After work, have everyone meet at the local slopchute. The one who pays for the first round shall be referred to as the "Senior NCO." If the others don't like it, then they will have to opportunity to claim the "Senior NCO" title next week. Repeat the process for... say... 6-8 weeks. At the end of the evaluation period, the one who has paid the least, if any, for the beer is actually the Senior NCO --and he will, likely, be indifferent to the title.
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CSM Charles Hayden
Capt Mark Strobl Classical wisdom from a O-3 officer? That sounds like 'Gunny Speak' to me!
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We break it out one further: Marines (all), NCOs (E4+), Staff NCOs (E6+), Senior Staff NCOs (Squishy but probably E8+). The Marine Corps as a more ̶e̶l̶i̶t̶e̶ expeditionary (and self selecting and smaller and etc.) force pushes responsibility lower than any other service. In the end we have the same E and O codes but everyone knows we're b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ different.
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GySgt John O'Donnell
The "normalcy" is the key point. Marine Corps leadership traits and principles are ingrained in Marines from day one, and so are the expectations. Though there are leaders in other services that a given unique opportunities to fill billets outside their rate/rank, in the Marine Corps, due to the "leadership foundation" (especially in combat) the best person is put into the job, where in other services this is a "extreme" rarity. Examples of this is a E-6/Staff Segeant holding a E-8/ Master Sergeant billet of Motor Transport Chief for the 6-month Iraq invasion, an E-7/Gunnery Sergeant serving as Senior Watch "Officer" of the Base Defense Operations Center (BDOC) on the largest Airbase in Iraq for 7-months tour (to include President visit), or more simply a E-7/Gunnery Sergeant serving as "First Sergeant" for 1-year. This is often the "rule", and not the "exception".
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Sgt Dan Catlin
SFC (Join to see) - I held a GySgt billet as a Sgt in the 1st Marine Brigade (Hawaii), and in some ways my Comm Maint shop was rated the best. Others, well, we were working on it! But if you are getting the job done, the Corps tends to let you run with it. I knew others in the Bde who were in the same position I was. Staff selection was tough, as they had to go before boards. So not only are Marine SSgts senior NCO's, they can be in short supply at times! I was in at the end of Nam and just after, and a lot of Staff NCO's were leaving. Especially in critical MOS's, which mine was.
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