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Marine Corps Master Sergeant

E-8 Staff Noncommissioned Officer, U.S. Marine Corps
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How to get promoted to Master Sergeant History of the Marine Corps Master Sergeant Rank

A Master Sergeant is a Staff Noncommissioned Officer in the United States Marine Corps at DoD paygrade E-8.

The rank of "Master Sergeant" in the Marines was part of a further restructuring of Marine ranks after WWI, senior to Staff Sergeants but suboordinate to Master Gunnery Sergeants.

Want to learn more? Read about the Marine Corps' Master Sergeant rank on Military-Ranks.org.


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 In contrast with the Army, the Marines were not originally made to be self-sufficient to fight land wars for long periods of time.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.