These are the U.S. Army ranks in use today and their equivalent NATO designations.

Commissioned Officers:

There are several paths to becoming a commissioned officer including the United States Military Academy, Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and Officer Candidate School. Certain professions, such as physicians, nurses, lawyers, and chaplains are commissioned directly into the Army. But no matter what road an officer takes, the insignia are the same.

Address all personnel with the rank of general as "General (last name)" regardless of the number of stars. Likewise, address both colonels and lieutenant colonels as "Colonel (last name)" and first and second lieutenants as "Lieutenant (last name)."

US DoD Pay Grade	O-1	O-2	O-3	O-4	O-5
Insignia
Title	Second Lieutenant	First Lieutenant	Captain	Major	Lieutenant Colonel
Abbreviation	2LT	1LT	CPT	MAJ	LTC
NATO Code	OF-1		OF-2	OF-3	OF-4

US DoD Pay Grade	O-6	O-7	O-8	O-9	O-10	Special
Insignia
Title	Colonel	Brigadier General	Major General	Lieutenant General	General	General of the Army
Abbreviation	COL	BG	MG	LTG	GEN	GA
NATO Code	OF-6	OF-7	OF-8	OF-9	OF-10

Warrant Officers:

Warrant Officers are single track, specialty officers with subject matter expertise in a particular area. They are initially appointed as warrant officers (in the rank of WO1) by the Secretary of the Army, but receive their commission upon promotion to Chief Warrant Officer Two (CW2).

Technically, warrant officers are to be addressed as "Mr. (last name)" or "Ms. (last name)." However, many personnel do not use those terms, but instead say "Sir", "Ma'am", or most commonly, "Chief".

US DoD pay grade	W-1	W-2	W-3	W-4	W-5
Insignia
Title	Warrant Officer 1	Chief Warrant Officer 2	Chief Warrant Officer 3	Chief Warrant Officer 4	Chief Warrant Officer 5
Abbreviation	WO1	CW2	CW3	CW4	CW5
NATO Code	WO-1	WO-2	WO-3	WO-4	WO-5

Enlisted Personnel:

Sergeants are referred to as NCOs, short for non-commissioned officers. Corporals are also non-commisioned officers, and serve as the base of the non-commissioned Officer (NCO) ranks. Corporals are also called "hard stripes", in recognition of their leadership position. This distinguishes them from specialists who might have the same pay grade, but not the leadership responsibilities.

Address privates (E1 and E2) and privates first class (E3) as "Private (last name)." Address specialists as "Specialist (last name)." Address sergeants, staff sergeants, and sergeants first class as "Sergeant (last name)." Address higher ranking sergeants by their full ranks in conjunction with their names.

US DoD Pay grade	E-1	E-2	E-3	E-4		E-5	E-6
Insignia	No Insignia
Title	Private	Private	Private First Class	Specialist	Corporal	Sergeant	Staff Sergeant
Abbreviation	PVT ¹	PV2 ¹	PFC	SPC ²	CPL	SGT	SSG
NATO Code	OR-1	OR-2	OR-3	OR-4	OR-4	OR-5	OR-6
¹ PVT is also used as an abbreviation for both Private ranks when pay grade need not be distinguished ² SP4 is sometimes encountered in lieu of SPC for Specialist. This is a holdover from when there were additional specialist ranks at higher pay grades.

US DoD Pay grade	E-7	E-8		E-9
Insignia
Title	Sergeant First Class	Master Sergeant	First Sergeant	Sergeant Major	Command Sergeant Major	Sergeant Major of the Army
Abbreviation	SFC	MSG	1SG	SGM	CSM	SMA
NATO Code	OR-7	OR-8	OR-8	OR-9	OR-9	OR-9