 A technician was generally not addressed as such, but rather as the equivalent noncommissioed rank in its pay grade (T/5 as corporal; T/4 as sergeant; T/3 as sergeant or staff sergeant).Initially, technicians held the same authority as noncommissioned officers of their grade, but the Army declared in late 1943 amid a surplus of ranking noncommissioned officers in certain units originating from this policy that only technicians who were appointed prior to 1 December 1943 would continue to keep the authority of their respective grades; men appointed after would still draw the pay of their equivalent noncommissioned officer rank, but would only have the authority of privates.The technician ranks were removed from the rank system in 1948.