Army Specialist 5 StripesCurrent cloth style stripes for Army Specialist 5. Stripes are gold on green background. Sold in pairs.
In 1955, four grades of Specialist were established: Specialist Third Class (E-4), Specialist Second Class (E-5), Specialist First Class (E-6), and Master Specialist (E-7) similar to the Petty Officer grades of the Navy and Coast Guard. When the (so-called) Super Grades (E-8 and E-9) were introduced in 1958, the Specialist grade titles were changed to Specialist Four through Specialist Seven; Specialist Eight and Specialist Nine were added on top; each such grade paralleled the corresponding grade of non-commissioned officer (E-4 through E-9) in terms of pay, but without the NCO authority conferred on the latter.
Only the lowest Specialist grade survives today, as the higher grades were phased out, beginning with Specialist 8 and 9 in 1965. Specialist 8 and 9 had existed on paper only; there were never any actual promotions to these ranks. Specialist 7 was abolished in 1978 and Specialist 5 and 6 in 1985. At that time, the rank of Specialist 4 simply became known as "Specialist", which is how it is referred to today.
This item is also available to be embroidered on many of our custom embroidered items, printed onto a Custom T-Shirt, or engraved onto a flag case, pint glass, or wallet.
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