What is the rank of ACK?

[wileycat]

Hello -

I have been doing some research on my grandfather who was a Marine in the Pacific theater. On ancestory.com, I found a document that said his rank was ACK. He was enlisted from '42-'45.

I have looked all ovet the Internet and cannot find reference to any ACK, but have seen it placed alongside some marine's names and ranks.

I am very interested in WWII history - especially the Marines in the Pacific.

I heard on an amazon.com forum that Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg may be making another miniseries (like Band of Brothers) called, "The Pacific."

Thanks for any info on that ACK thing.

Catherine

[mjhpgh]

The only reference I can find is anti aircraft artillery -not a rank could have been his mos (Job)

[KidnapSix]

I heard on an amazon.com forum that Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg may be making another miniseries (like Band of Brothers) called, "The Pacific."

Sorry cant help you on the question but I know that thats an affirmative on the new miniseries.

[wileycat]

Thanks! I am glad it is a god on the miniseries. I can't wait. I will have to get HBO somehow.

Here is another place I found someone with the rank of ACK - a Pearl Harbor casualty list - under Allen Bradly Fincher. A lot of those others don't look like ranks either.

[wileycat]

URL for the Pearl Harbor Casualty List
http://www.usswestvirginia.org/ph/ph...?firstletter=F

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I found two different military acronym definitions finally.

ACK¹acknowledge character, ²positive acknowledgment

and

What does ACK ACK stand for?

Anti-Aircraft Fire



I read elsewhere that they called this ACK ACK due to the noise the guns made.

Then I found a site with a book about Women Marines Association and one nurse was listed as having "rank corporal ACK" so it may just be an acknowledgment for character and rank was not stated or not known.

Maybe if I find some other document or his grave site, perhaps, I will know for sure.

Thanks!

[Zulu 36]

In my esoteric collection of stuff, I have the official 1970 edition of U.S. Marine Corps Ranks and Grades 1775-1969.

According to that pamphlet, in the 1942 time period, ACK could be the rank abbreviation of Assistant Cook. The booklet does not go into rank abbreviations, but Assistant Cook is the closest rank I can reasonably extrapolate from ACK.

The insignia was a single chevron with a "C" beneath it. In mid-1944, an Assistant Cook was placed in the same pay grade as a corporal.

These ranks were changed in late 1946. The 1946 change eliminated all of the separate commissary, clerical, musician, etc, ranks and integrated them into the standard rank structure of the time.

Ranks and pay grades as we know them now came into effect in January 1959.

[wileycat]

I learned from someone else as well that ACK stands for Assistant Cook.

Of course, this is leading me to more questions and ponderings than ever.

Why would someone be in the war for three years and end with a cook job? I guess it is better than getting shot at.

My mother thinks he enlisted in part to get away from my grandmother. I do not have a lot of knowledge on him due to estrangement over time from his kids - some of it not entirely his fault.

I know he got malaria and I did see a photo in my grandmother's collection of a bunch of dead soldiers in various stages of rigor mortis.
There were a few more of Marine type activity.

They could have been from my great uncle who was wounded as a Sergeant in the Marines. Otherwise, I guess he might have seen some action or the aftermath thereof.

Just wondering what puts someone in line to be a cook over another duty?
Chance assigment, choice, demotion?

[Zulu 36]

I learned from someone else as well that ACK stands for Assistant Cook.

Of course, this is leading me to more questions and ponderings than ever.

Why would someone be in the war for three years and end with a cook job? I guess it is better than getting shot at.

My mother thinks he enlisted in part to get away from my grandmother. I do not have a lot of knowledge on him due to estrangement over time from his kids - some of it not entirely his fault.

I know he got malaria and I did see a photo in my grandmother's collection of a bunch of dead soldiers in various stages of rigor mortis.
There were a few more of Marine type activity.

They could have been from my great uncle who was wounded as a Sergeant in the Marines. Otherwise, I guess he might have seen some action or the aftermath thereof.

Just wondering what puts someone in line to be a cook over another duty?
Chance assigment, choice, demotion?

The most likely reason he became a cook was the "Needs of the Corps." He might have volunteered if a spot opened and he had some cooking background.

Cooks were not necessarily safe. If assigned to a combat unit, they made island landings too and were often members of provisional rifle platoons tasked with guarding battalion or regimental HQ or logistics areas. More than once such "rear echelon" Marines had to fight for their lives when Japanese attacks penetrated into the rear areas. Several times it was the cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers who pulled their unit's crap out of the fire by reinforcing the line or defending the rear areas.

And people do enlist to become a cook. My brother enlisted in the Corps to become one. He's an assistant executive chef in the Lake Tahoe, NV area now.

[wileycat]

Thank you again for that interesting information. In my online searching, I did see a few cases of ACK's listed as MIA in WWII.

I understand that every Marine is trained as a rifleman. I think it was the battle at Midway where cooks, clerks, and radiomen were manning guns.

I guess nowhere in war is there a "safe" place to be.

I just finished watching, "Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen," which drove that point home.

[Zulu 36]

I guess nowhere in war is there a "safe" place to be.

I just finished watching, "Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen," which drove that point home.

Very true. Especially when you consider that the Marine combat cameraman who was filming movies of the Iwo Jima flag raising, next to Rosenthal, was later KIA when he used his lighting gear to illuminate a cave for some grunts. His body is still sealed in that cave.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Wiley, if you shoot me a PM I'll do some more research for you. Ancestry doesn't have much on the WWII era, just the pre-war stuff. ACK was indeed, 'assistant cook', and that would have been a Corporal's equivlant. He could very well have been an infantryman who was assigned that job, or he may have held it the entire war.

5th Pay Grade

Corporal Assistant Cook Field Music Corporal Steward's Assistant First Class

Here is the website I got this from, you may find it helpful:
http://www.ww2gyrene.org/rank_structure.htm

I'd suggest you attempt to get his records from NARA. It may take a little while but it's well worth it.