[Ads-l] According to =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9CBasic_Training_Memories=2C=E2=80=9D_?=a Facebook S.I.G.,

[Jonathan Lighter]

Acc. to HDAS, a private temporarily acting as corporal was the original
sense.

JL

On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 1:54 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> An “acting jack” is now an Sp4 holding the acting rank of corporal. Back in
> my day, an “acting jack” was an Sp5 holding the acting rank of sergeant.
>
> My analysis: today, the only specialist grade is Sp4 (E-4), with the pay
> and privileges, but not the rank and duties, of a corporal, the
> lowest-ranking NCO. Everyone with the grade of E-5 or higher is a real
> sergeant/NCO.
>
> Back when, the highest specialist grade was the same as the highest NCO
> grade, E-9, with a specialist having the same pay and privileges, but not
> the rank and duties, of the corresponding NCO. But, in fact, a specialist
> of a grade higher than E-5 was so rare as to be merely theoretical - I saw
> an Sp6, *once*, in my three years of service - making E-5 effectively the
> highest specialist grade then, as E-4 is actually the highest specialist
> grade, now. So, a specialist acting as an NCO - an “acting jack” - was an
> E-5.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org