United States Marine Corps Ranks In Order

This table of the United States Marine Corps ranks from lowest to highest shows the Marine Corps' rank structure from lowest to highest including rank insignia, abbreviation, and rank classification.

The United States Marine Corps has twenty seven grades of enlisted marines and officers, with most marines enlisting at the entry-level rank of Private (Pvt, paygrade E-1). The highest rank achievable in the Marine Corps is General.

Click any rank for detailed rank information including duties and responsibilities, promotion information, salary, and more.

Structure of the Marine Corps

All Marines are given baseline training as Infantry, trained in the face-to-face combat prowess of hardened Army Soldiers. Even Pilots and JAGs are capable of serving in Infantry units! The Marines are also proudly the most strict among the uniformed services. There is a friendly rivalry between the Army and Marines, but never refer to a Marine as a Soldier. The Marines are also somewhat contempt about being part of the Department of the Navy, receiving only a small fraction of the Navy's budget for their equipment and operations.

History of the Marine Corps

As far back as the Revolutionary War, Marines were known as Naval Infantry, and were assigned to ships to repel boarders, assault land-based targets, and discipline unruly Sailors. In WWI and WWII, Marines very successfully augmented Army units in war theaters throughout the world, with their most brutal and historic fighting on islands in the Pacific. In contrast with the Army, the Marines were not originally made to be self-sufficient to fight land wars for long periods of time. Doctors, Chaplains, and Medics who deploy with Marines are all Navy Sailors.