Lance Corporal (LCpl) is the third lowest enlisted rank in the U.S. Marine Corps, just above
Private First Class and below
Corporal. It is not a non-commissioned officer rank. The Marines are the only component of the U.S. Armed Forces to have Lance Corporals.
From the earliest years of the Corps, the ranks of lance corporal and lance sergeant were in common usage. Marines were appointed temporarily from the next lower rank to the higher grade but were still paid at the lower rank. As the rank structure became more firmly defined, the rank of lance sergeant fell out of use. Lance corporals served in the Corps into the 1930s but this unofficial rank became redundant when the rank of private first class was established in 1917. The lance corporal fell out of usage prior to World War II, to be permanently established in the sweeping rank restructuring of 1958.
Unlike other branches of the U.S. military that remove modifiers in a less formal environment, a Lance Corporal is not referred to as a Lance, but as a Lance Corporal, never as Corporal. Because of them not being of NCO status, only ranks same or above call a Lance Corporal by last name. Four common Marine nicknames for a Lance Corporal are "Lance Coolie", "Lance Coconut", "Lance Colonel", or "Lance Criminal." It can also stand for the acronym "Last Chance to Play Lost"(L Cpl.) or also "Last Cleaning Person Left" indicating the expected mistakes a Lance Corporal would make in the hopes of becoming a Corporal.
