US MARINES

A marine is a member of an infantry force that specializes in naval operations such as amphibious assault. The United States Marine Corps is the smallest of the United States Armed Forces in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Special Operations

Although the notion of a Marine special forces contribution to the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) was considered as early as the founding of USSOCOM, it was

 resisted by the Marine Corps. the popular belief that Marines should support Marines, and that the

Corps should not fund a special operations capability that would not support Marine operations. But that quickly changed. 

Rank structure

As in the rest of the United States military, Marine Corps ranks fall into one of three categories: commissioned officer, warrant officer, and enlisted, in decreasing order of authority To standardize compensation.

Commissioned officers

Commissioned officers are distinguished from other officers by their commission.

U.S. DoD Pay Grade	O-1	O-2	O-3	O-4	O-5	O-6	O-7	O-8	O-9	O-10
Insignia
Title	Second Lieutenant	First Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel	Colonel	Brigadier General	Major General	Lieutenant General	General
Abbreviation	2ndLt	1stLt	Capt	Maj	LtCol	Col	BGen	MajGen	LtGen	Gen
NATO Code	OF-1		OF-2	OF-3	OF-4	OF-5	OF-6	OF-7	OF-8	OF-9

Warrant officers

Warrant officers are primarily former enlisted experts in a specific specialized field and provide leadership generally only within that speciality.

U.S. DoD Pay Grade	W-1	W-2	W-3	W-4	W-5
Insignia
Title	Warrant Officer 1	Chief Warrant Officer 2	Chief Warrant Officer 3	Chief Warrant Officer 4	Chief Warrant Officer 5
Abbreviation	WO1	CWO2	CWO3	CWO4	CWO5
NATO Code	WO-1	WO-2	WO-3	WO-4	WO-5

Enlisted

U.S. DoD Pay grade	E-1	E-2	E-3	E-4	E-5	E-6	E-7	E-8		E-9
Insignia	No insignia
Title	Private	Private First Class	Lance Corporal	Corporal	Sergeant	Staff Sergeant	Gunnery Sergeant	Master Sergeant	First Sergeant	Master Gunnery Sergeant	Sergeant Major	Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps
Abbreviation	Pvt	PFC	LCpl	Cpl	Sgt	SSgt	GySgt	MSgt	1stSgt	MGySgt	SgtMaj	SgtMajMarCor
NATO Code	OR-1	OR-2	OR-3	OR-4	OR-5	OR-6	OR-7	OR-8		OR-9