Talk:Corporal

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Contents 1 Master Corporal 2 Calling someone Corporal 3 Corporals and commands 4 Re: Germany section 5 US Table at Top?

[edit] Master Corporal

In documentaries and news items about the Canadian armed forces the recruits always address their drill instructors thus, "Yes, Master Corporal!" So, what is a Master Corporal? Is it the same as other armed forces' Corporal?

• It's a rank between corporal and sergeant, wearing a maple leaf above two chevrons. However, the Canadians no longer have lance-corporals, so I assume it fills a similar slot to corporal in the British Army and the Canadian corporal fills a similar slot to lance-corporal. In NATO terms it ranks as OR-5, the same as a sergeant with less than three years seniority. -- Necrothesp 13:13, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)
  • To be picky, I believe it's an appointment rather than rank. — Franey 09:20, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
    • You are correct; it is officially an appointment to the rank of Corporal. According to the rules when I was in, if a Sergeant got demoted 1 step in rank, he got bucked down to Corporal (the next substantive rank down); however, to get back to Sergeant, he'd have to get promoted to Master Corporal first, then jump through all the hoops again to get his third hook back. I think that reg may have changed, at it may have been seen as discriminatory. At any rate, overall it is a de jure appointment and a de facto rank. SigPig 20:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Calling someone Corporal

Outside of an organisation, to what extent can you call someone 'Corporal' (e.g Cpl J Brown instead of Mr J Brown)?

Well, in the UK it would never be done. All ranks lower than captain are addressed as "Mr" outside the service environment (and subalterns and warrant officers are addressed as "Mr" even within it). It is also, incidentally, considered bad form for retired service personnel to continue to use their rank if it was lower than major (or equivalent). I don't know about the rules elsewhere. -- Necrothesp 19:11, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Corporals and commands

Corporal is the first rank in the NCO cadre, the first rank empowered to issue an order, and I can tell you they routinely exercise that power, albeit only over privates. How else, f'r'instance, is a radio detachment commander going to command his detachment? SigPig 20:15, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

See my comment under "Corporals and commands" above. Canadian corporals are not private soldiers. They are de jure Junior Non-Commissioned Officers, and empowered to issue lawful commands; de facto they may often be treated as glorified privates, but I can tell you that they are detachment commanders and shift supervisors (as well as 2ICs), lead patrols, and have been tasked as instructors at the national level. SigPig 21:00, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

"[In Canada] corporal is the first non-commissioned officer rank, and the lowest rank officially empowered to issue a lawful command. Corporals can lead troops if they have the formal qualifications to be promoted to Master Corporal but have not been promoted yet. However, the rank of Corporal was severaly downgraded after Unification, along with the attendant responsibilities. A Corporal in the Canadian Army in 1967 had the same duties and responsibilities that a Sergeant has today."

To support SigPig, I disagree with that quote from the article. On training with reserve regiments, I've almost never seen a sergent working as a section commander. A lot of the time we have them there, but only on paper. Sometimes we feel lucky if we get a sergent to act as platoon warrant. The section commanders and 2ic's are usually, mostly corporals, and I've seen privates do it too. The way things should work and the way they do work don't always match, but they do match better on courses, regular force training, and operations...--Sukisuki 15:48, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Germany section

I'm not very common to German military, but there definitly does not exist any rank called "Oberstabsgefreiter". That should be changed. --M9IN0G 18:17, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] US Table at Top?

I think there should be a table at the top of other US ranks, and not just those of the British military. Or abolished completely. There is a tremendous number of Americans on this site (including myself) and the whole page is about international ranks, anyways. Does anyone else agree?Zoke (talk) 00:55, 24 May 2008 (UTC)