| Marine Corps Ranks | Enlisted
An enlisted rank in the Marine Corps of the United States is any rank below a commissioned officer. The term can also be inclusive of noncommissioned officers. In most cases, enlisted service personnel perform jobs specific to their own occupational specialty, as opposed to the more general command responsibilities of commissioned officers. | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Officer
An officer is a member of an armed force who holds a position of responsibility.
Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position. Commissioned officers are typically the only persons in a military environment able to act as the commanding officer (according to the most technical definition of the word) over a military unit. | | | | | | | | | | |
| Warrant Officer
The Marine Corps has had warranted officers since 1916 as technical specialists who perform duties that require extensive knowledge, training and experience with particular systems or equipment. Marine warrant officers are selected from the ranks of non-commissioned officers and given additional training in leadership and management. The duties Marine warrant officers typically fulfill are those that would normally call for the authority of a commissioned officer, however, require an additional level of technical proficiency and practical experience that a commissioned officer would not have had the opportunity to achieve.
An enlisted Marine can apply for the Warrant Officer program after serving at least eight years of enlisted service, and reaching the grade of E-5 (Sergeant) for the administrative warrant officer program and E-7 (Gunnery Sergeant) for the weapons warrant officer program. If the Marine NCO is selected, he or she is given additional training in leadership and management.
While Marine warrant officers may often be informally referred to as "gunner", this title is actually reserved for a special category of chief warrant officer known as the "Marine Gunner," or "Infantry Weapons Officer." These Marines serve as the senior weapons specialists in an infantry unit, advising the commanding officer and his staff on the proper use and deployment of the current Marine infantry weapon systems. The title "Gunner" is almost always used in lieu of a rank (i.e., "Gunner Smith" as opposed to "Chief Warrant Officer Smith"), and the rank insignia worn on the left collar or shoulder is replaced with a "bursting bomb", similar to the insignia inside the rank chevrons of a Master Gunnery Sergeant. | | | | | |
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