Is it so hard to understand that no matter what you believe, CPL anything outranks a SPC?

Doshaza is right, the Army SPC has no eqivelant. CPL is not equal to SPC, no matter how you view it.

I'm not saying that a CPL doesn't outrank a SPC.. I am just pointing out the fact that it says...

"Members of other Services serving with the Army have equal status with Army Soldiers of equivalent GRADE. (Comparable grades among the Services are shown in table 1-2.)

If you were to pay attention to detail it says grade, not rank. A SPC and a CPL in the army have the same pay grade, so as far as grade goes, they are the same. Yes we all know a CPL outranks a SPC, I was just pointing out the fact that a Marine CPL and an army SPC are the same grade.

I luckily stumbled across this post while trying to explain the NCO mix and match thing to a younger coworker considering joining the Guard. I'll weigh in with some Marine perspective and hopefully the follow up information keeps it from being flammable.

A Marine corporal is definitely an NCO. In general, technical expertise will not get you promoted - they'd rather let you rot as a LCpl / E-3. If not showing any leadership potential, Marines often find it very difficult to advance. Fraternization is instantly discouraged - if you'd prefer to be an E-3 to hang with the boys again, they'll hook you right up. One is expected to take being an NCO very seriously - it is definitely a jump up. They (probably wrong) will assume you're lacking "something" if you're a specialist. Take note that the USMC "specialist" split is at E-8 and I've witnessed SHAME at individuals getting promotion to Master Sergeant instead of First Sergeant.

I've also heard advisement of "Don't take any **** from any specialist" for Marines in my (infantry) unit destined for jump school. Assume that any Marine Cpl or Sgt will be informally briefed in such a manner before anything joint.

As mentioned earlier (very important), if their behavior is not relevant to the chain of command and they're just strutting for its own sake, call them on it and/or get someone higher up involved to sort it out. Benning may have formal documentation to sort this all out once and for all since they regularly host NCO's of different branches as opposed to initial schools or facilities where nearly everyone is E-1 to E-3.

Ah the thread that wouldn't die.

Go Ordnance, to clarify the statement "Members of other Services serving with the Army have equal status with Army Soldiers of equivalent GRADE. (Comparable grades among the Services are shown in table 1-2." one must look to the glossary of AR 600-20

quote:

Grade
A step or degree in a graduated scale of office or rank that is established and designated as a grade by law or regulation. For example, second lieutenant (2LT), captain (CPT), sergeant first class (SFC), chief warrant officer two (CW2) are grades.

This is a separate definition from pay grade.

Look again to table 1-1 which distinguishes grade of rank from pay grade.

My final answer:
Table 2-1 outlines comparable interservice grades of rank. In that table, all non-Army service members in the pay grade of E-4 are considered equal to Army Corporals. Table 1-1 clearly shows Specialists between Corporals and PFCs.

Specialists do not have a comparable counterpart in any other service. Therefore, all non-Army E-4s outrank Specialists.

Any questions?