The Army plans to start capitalizing "soldier" every time it appears in text, including in base newspapers. The Army chief of staff has decreed it. Officials also contacted AP and dictionaries to ask them to follow suit.

“I don’t see how he could do that,” said Jim Lowe, an editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Mass. “The word (soldier) is already established in the language. It’s a generic word.

“He can capitalize it if he wants to give it emphasis and make it stand out in text. As far as the dictionary is concerned, it’s still a generic word. I don’t think one person’s use of it will change anything in the dictionary.”

Well said.