https://www.navytimes.com/articles/ratin...job-titles-back

So now the rest of the Armed Forces will be absolutely clueless on what rank a Boatswain's Mate Second Class is once again.



Merry Christmas to my Navy friends!

Back atcha' Dart!

Being an Earth Pig, we referred to the enlisted Navy based on picking rust and polishing brass:

Rustpicker Recruit
Rustpicker Apprentice
Rustpicker
Polishing Officer 3rd Class
Polishing Officer 2nd Class
Polishing Officer 1st Class
Chief Polishing Officer
Senior Chief Polishing Officer
Masterbaiting Polishing Officer

I've also heard it as Pretty Officer instead of Polishing Officer.


Nothing like a little inter-service ragging.


Oh, by the way my wife is ex-Navy.

the Coast Guard did away with Quartermaster ( my rate) rolling it into Boatswain's mate and operational specialist rates. Deckies belong on deck and QM's on the bridge, plotting positions, navigating, monitoring the radio and radar and hoisting flags and pennants, remember those? I got my coxswain's pin for operating our motor life boats, which is usually a BM's job, but an extra man in rotation was welcomed.

Our 3rd class BM nearly sunk the Captain's gig while the XO was in it. That incident had nothing to do with his long standing nickname which was "Gilligan".

Well, it's the navy, the more awkward the gait the lower the rank is ( this is some homosexual innuendo if I wasn't clear enough )

The enlisted ranks in the US armed forces have always been a huge confusing jumble. At least the officer ranks are much more straight forward.

Am I the only one who just disposes of the name and goes by E-3 and O-2 and stuff?



The Jedi Master

I am a bit confused. Are ratings equivalent to ranks ? Ours are pretty simple.

Seaman, Able Seaman, Leading Seaman, Petty Officer, Chief Petty Officer

at least that's how cadet ranks go

To be honest, they never really went away

All the AD's I work with, stayed AD's as well AE's and AZ's.

U.S. Navy Officer Ranks and Enlisted Rates Enlisted Rates

Navy officers have rank
Navy enlisted have rate
Navy enlisted specialties are their rating.

My rate was Petty Officer 2nd Class
My rating was Electronics Technician

Hmmm... I guess ET2(SS) would be Extremely Tarnished Polishing Officer 2nd Class (Silently Suffering)

I always wondered what that term meant, so finally I looked it up: Google told be that the term "petty" in this context might have been derived from the French word "petit" (small). So a Petty Officer would have been a "small officer" (as in semi-officer rank).

Oh, my pet peeve when I was in uniform, one that was pretty much guaranteed to get a reaction from snarky (Gosh, sir, and here I though you were a Captain) to irate ("E-4? E-4? Don't ever ask why you're not a Sergeant ever again, or at least until you understand the difference between a pay grade and a rank. And if by some miracle you become a Sergeant, be a Sergeant, not a pay grade. We have too many pay grades in the Army as it is. Be the rank, get paid the grade.").

Of course being a bit starchy and untactful at the same time is probably a good reason why I retired as a Sergeant First Class instead of a Sergeant Major.

Most sailors I've run into introduce themselves by rating, not rank, probably to jerk the chain of Soldiers.

...except for the Navy, of course.

That chart shows some of the odd ranks the Navy uses.

That chart shows funny things like Ensignia ( emblem) , Commander of Lieutenants, Admiral of Rears, Admiral in charge of Vice. And what's up with Admiral of the Upper half of the Boat and the Admiral or the Lower Half of the Boat ? And why not the Admiral of the Forward Upper Half or the Forward Lower Half ?

Since they like Rears; why not Admiral of the Rear Upper Half ?

See, that's exactly right ! I guess the Silent Suffering was either for the Stoics or the Submariners.

And why does the Navy say "Submariners" wrong ?

I'm USAF...well, Air National Guard now, but when on title 10 orders while deployed I am USAF. We stopped at NAS Sigonella on our way home from AFG and Kuwait a couple of years ago. My orders for the hotel we stayed at off base said I was some sort of Petty Officer (guess it was easier for the Navy dudes who booked our hotel to go by E/O ranks). I was an E-6 Technical Sergeant in the USAF at the time, which is higher than Staff Sergeant I was before...but is equal to Staff Sergeant in the Army...oh, my head's going to explode...lol. I'm E-7 Master Sergeant now, so it's a little easier.

Petty Officer is a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in every other branch.

I was sooo happy that the USMC ran al Jaber Kuwait while we were there. They know better than to salute officers in combat zones, so we had to follow suit. Lucky for me, because I had no freaking idea what insignias they or their Navy corpsmen guys had on...lol.

NAVY = Never Again Volunteer Yourself