top kick moved to my left side and sliced off that stripe. Then he continued, "But you will need these."
I looked on uncomprehendingly as he handed the first sergeant a set of corporal chevrons. The first sergeant took up the narrative.
"The top ten percent of graduating trainees get promoted and since you were our number one graduate, you were in that number. The problem was the earlier promotion you received for Soldier of the Quarter. I talked to the Brigade Sergeant Major about it and we agreed that you deserved E4. The sergeant major called his counterpart at the jump school at Fort Benning and worked out making you a corporal until you graduate the Airborne Course and depart Benning. During the first week there, when the new arrivals provide KPs and details for the students in training, you will be the noncommissioned officer in charge of our troopers. When you leave Benning you will be laterally appointed a spec four."
A corporal and specialist four were the same pay grade, the difference in the ranks was that a corporal held a leadership position. I almost soiled my skivvies when the first sergeant pinned the new stripes to my sleeve.