Lance Corporal

A junior enlisted rank of the US Marine Corps, E-3 and NATO OR-3, the working rifleman grade of the Corps.

Overview

Lance Corporal wears one chevron with crossed rifles and forms the mass of a Marine rifle battalion: the rank the Corps fights with. Promotion from private first class follows time in grade and command approval, and lance corporals are trusted with fire team assignments under a corporal or sergeant. The title descends from the lancepesade of medieval armies, a slightly enhanced soldier, and the modern spelling took shape in the British forces of the eighteenth century. In the Marines the rank carries both pride and the truism that the Corps runs on its lance corporals.