Editing Corporal (section)

==== United States Marine Corps ====
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}

Corporal is the fourth enlisted rank in the [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marine Corps]],<ref>
{{cite web |title=Enlisted Rank Insignia |url=https://www.defense.gov/about/insignias/enlisted.aspx |publisher=[[U.S. Department of Defense]] |access-date=28 May 2011 |year=2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110528070550/http://www.defense.gov/about/insignias/enlisted.aspx |archive-date=28 May 2011 |url-status=live}}
</ref> ranking immediately above [[lance corporal]] and immediately below [[sergeant]]. The Marine Corps, unlike the Army, has no other rank at the pay grade of E-4. Corporal is the lowest grade of non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, though promotion to corporal traditionally confers a significant jump in authority and responsibility compared to promotion from private through lance corporal. Marine infantry corporals generally serve as "fire-team leaders", leading a four-man team or weapons crew of similar size (e.g., assault weapons squad, medium machine gun team, or [[M224 mortar|LWCMS]] mortar squad).

In practice, however, the [[billet]] of fire team leader is generally held by a lance corporal, while corporals serve in the squad leader billet that would normally be held by a sergeant (E-5) in infantry units. In support units, corporals generally serve in "journeyman" level roles in which they direct the activities of junior Marines and provide technical supervision, on a very limited scope, under the direct supervision of a sergeant or SNCO.

Due to its emphasis on small-unit tactics, its infantry-centric ethos, and its tradition of empowering junior NCOs to exercise first-level leadership, the U.S. Marine Corps' Tables of Organization (TOs) usually places corporals (as well as sergeants and staff sergeants) in billets where other services would normally have higher ranking NCOs in authority. For example, the USMC Table of Organization "billet" rank for rifle fire team leader, rifle squad leader, and rifle platoon sergeant is corporal (E-4), sergeant (E-5), and staff sergeant (E-6), respectively. However, the same positions (Table of Organization and Equipment "slots") in US Army infantry units are one grade higher and, except in fire teams (both services with four men in each team), the equivalent Army units are smaller (viz., USMC rifle squad and rifle platoon – 13 men and 43 men, respectively, vice US Army rifle squad and rifle platoon – 9 men and 34 men, respectively). Specifically, for the Army rifle units, the rank of the fire team, squad leader, and platoon sergeant are: sergeant (E-5), staff sergeant (E-6), and sergeant first class (E-7), respectively.<ref>USMC Table of Organization, TO 1013G: Rifle Company, Infantry Battalion, Infantry Regiment and US Army Table of Organization and Equipment, TOE 07015C000: Rifle Company, Infantry Battalion (Light), Light Infantry Division</ref> Similarly, the term "[[Three Block War|strategic corporal]]" refers to the special responsibilities conferred upon a Marine corporal over against the normal responsibilities, and usual authority, of service members in the grade of E-4 in the other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.<ref>
{{cite web |first=Charles C. |last=Krulak |title=The Strategic Corporal: Leadership in the Three Block War |publisher=Marines Magazine |url=http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/strategic_corporal.htm |date=January 1999 |access-date=24 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021121441/http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/strategic_corporal.htm |archive-date=21 October 2016 }}
</ref>

Until the mid-to-late 1980s,{{Year needed|date=February 2021}} corporals were the lowest USMC rank eligible for selection as a [[drill instructor]] for USMC [[recruit training]].{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

The history of the rank of corporal in the USMC roughly parallels that of the U.S. Army until 1942. From 1775 until WWII, the Marine Corps used essentially the same rank and organizational structure as its common British and colonial forebears with the Army, as well as the later Continental and U.S. armies. In 1942, as the Army modified its triangular division infantry organization to best fight in the European/North African/Middle Eastern Theatre the Marine Corps began modifying the triangular division plan to best employ its amphibious warfare doctrine in the Pacific Theatre. This meant that for the Corps, squad leaders would remain as sergeants and that the rifle squad would be sub-divided into three four-man fire teams each led by a corporal.