Military Ranks

Ranks Within the United States Military

The United States military includes branches for the Marines, Army and Air Force to name a few of the most popular sub-divisions. Each branch of the military uses its own ranking system to separate individuals of higher authorities, assigned tasks and pay grades. In order to reference individuals within military ranks, 3 sub-categories help organize authority levels within each branch. The following lists the sub-categories in order from lowest in the chain of authority to highest in the chain of authority: enlisted personnel, warrant officers and commissioned officers.

The Army and Marine Corps both have enlisted personnel, warrant officers and commissioned officers. However, the Air Force stands out among the different divisions, as it does not have any listed ranks for warrant officers. Instead, the list of enlisted personnel for the Air Force is nearly twice as long as most other branches.

The Marines and Army both start off the category for enlisted personnel with Private Classmen and Private First Classmen. However, the similarities in order of advancement titles end here. For the Marines, Lance Corporals, Sergeants and Master Sergeants comprise the remaining titles for advancement.

Specialists, and variations of Sergeants complete the chain of command within the category for enlisted personnel. The warrant officers and commissioned officers of the Marine Corps and the Army have similar ranks for their warrant officers and commissioned officers, as well.

The Air Force stands apart from most branches of the military that use categories, such as enlisted personnel, warrant officers and commissioned officers for easier reference, as they do not have a section for warrant officers. The category for enlisted personnel begins with Airmen, and progresses through higher chains in command as follows: Airman First Class, Senior Airman, Staff Sergeant, Tech. Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Senior Sergeant and Chief Master Sergeant. Commissioned Officers begin with the 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant and proceed through the order of rank as Majors, Captains, Colonels, Major Generals and Lieutenant Generals.

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US military Rank Insignia

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