Navy Rates and Ranks for the Nautically Challenged
Navy ranks and rates seem to confuse everyone who was not in the Navy. It’s not as complicated as it seems.
Rate’s or Rating is the job you do. They are broken into four main groups, Sea, Engineering, Air and Construction.
Ranks are the Pay Grade
E-2 through E-3 ranks wear different colored diagonal stripes on the Dress Uniforms to indicate what group they belong to. E-1 wears no stripes, E-2 wears 2 stripes, E-3 wears 3 stripes.
White Stripes on Dress Blues or Dark Blue Stripes on Dress Whites indicate the Sea or Seaman group. They would be addressed as Seaman Recruit (SR) for an E-1, Seaman Apprentice (SA) for an E-2, or Seaman (SN) for an E-3
Red Stripes on both Dress Uniforms indicate the engineering or Fireman Group. They would be addressed as Fireman Recruit (FR) for an E-1, Fireman Apprentice (FA) for an E-2, or Fireman (FN) for an E-3.
Green Stripes on both Dress Uniforms indicate the Air or Airman Group. They would be addressed as Airman Recruit (AR) for an E-1, Airman Apprentice (AA) for an E-2, or Airman (AN) for an E-3.
Light Blue Stripes on both Dress Uniforms indicate the Construction or Constructionman Group. They would be addressed as Constructionman Recruit (CR) for an E-1, Constructionman Apprentice (CA) for an E-2, or Constructionman (CN) for an E-3. This Group is also known as the SeaBee’s.
If a person in paygrade E-1 through E-3 has completed an A school they are allowed to wear a rating badge with their stripes and add their rating before their rank. For example an E-2 that completed Machinist Mate A School would be Machinist Mate Fireman Apprentice (MMFA) Because the rating of Machinist Mate is in the Engineering Group.
Pay Grades E-4 through E-9 are Non-Commissioned Officers.
Pay Grades E-4 through E-6 are Petty Officers and would be addressed as Petty Officer with their last name or with their Rate and rank such as AD3 Wilson.
An E-4 is a Petty Officer Third Class and would wear one chevron with an eagle centered above it.
An E-5 is a Petty Officer Second Class and would wear two chevrons with an eagle centered above them.
An E-6 is a Petty Officer First Class and would wear three chevrons with an eagle centered above them.
The Dress Uniforms are the same for E-1 through E-6. They are the traditional Cracker Jack Blues in the winter or Whites in the summer. The Rating Badges are only worn with the Dress Uniforms, for a Petty Officer the Rating would be between the eagle and the chevrons, on the left sleeve on the uniform.
The Dress Blue Uniform will have red chevrons with a Silver Eagle and Rating Mark. A red hash mark is added to the left sleeve at the cuff for every 4 years of service. When the service member has achieved 12 years of service with good conduct, Gold chevrons and hash marks are worn. If the service member does not maintain a record of good conduct they must be removed and changed back to red.
The Dress White Uniform will have all blue rating mark, eagle, chevrons and hash marks. The colors do not change with good conduct.
E-7 through E-9 are Chiefs Ranks.
An E-7 is a Chief Petty Officer They wear 3 chevrons with an eagle centered above and a rocker that encloses the eagle. This would only be seen on the on the Dress Blue uniform. All other Uniforms would be represented by a fouled anchor pin.
An E-8 is a Senior Chief Petty Officer. They would wear the same Chevrons as an E-7 with the addition on a Nautical Star centered above the top Rocker, Again the only time this would be seen is in the Dress Blue Uniform. All other Uniforms would have a fouled anchor pin with a Star centered above the anchor.
An E-9 is a Master Chief Petty Officer. They are a rare and tenacious breed known for their quick mood changes and foul tempers. Upon sighting one many junior officers and enlisted often stop. turn the other direction and run. They tend to form packs with the other chiefs in a place called the goat locker, where they are fed well and often. They wear whatever they want to. Most often it is a wash kakis uniform with a fouled anchor pin with two stars on the collar. Their Chevrons are similar to the E-7 except they have two stars on the outside of the rocker.
By the time one attains the rank of Master Chief they have very little real blood left. It has been replaces by a mixture of salt water, and paint for those that started as a seaman, Black oil and Distilled Water for those that started out as a Fireman, JP5 and Hydraulic fluid for those that started as Airman, and Diesel Fuel and saw Dust for those that started as SeaBees.
No ship they are on is as good as the last ship they were on. None of them even come close to the first one. Never look directly at one wearing full dress whites, it has caused temporary blindness and awkward stammering.
As Jonn posted earlier this week it is the 122 Birthday of the establishment of the Chief Petty Officer. Happy Birthday to all of the Chiefs of TAH.
Sure. Now it all makes sense…???
clear as mud.
After shaking my head to make the blood flow again. I add, “what they said above”.
I’m still confused……but this is why I stayed on solid land 🙂
Ex-344MP…Me too brother! Me too! I always figured I could dig a foxhole a hell of a lot faster than I could shit an island! 😀
Just goes to show you, I was always taught, “why walk when you can ride”! lol
Nice job, E4U.
WHAT! He gave away our secret code! What’s next, giving out our decoder rings too!!!
Helpful. Thanks. But, what about the specialties, e.g., communications, sonar, weapons …. You cite the 4 groups: Sea, Engineering, Air and Construction. Would a commo sailor be the same no matter which group they are in? Do sailors change groups?
Communications, sonar, radar, radioman etc., are Sea group.
Even if they are aviation?
where would a PH be? I think we’ve heard here that they can be on ship or air.
PH was an airman rate, Sadly that rate no longer exist it was replaced by Mass Communication Specialist.
The mass communication specialist merged the rated of Photographers Mate, Journalist, Draftsman and Lithographer
Aviation group, but sadly, PH is no longer extant. It is now MCS – Mass Communications Specialist, with something like (CC) combat camera added after MCS and the PO rank, then the (CC).
I always thought of it like this, if it had to do with navigating the ship, taking care of the crew or fighting the ship it was a seaman rate.
If it had to do with the engines the electric or the hull of the ship itself other than paint it was a Fireman rate.
If it had anything to do with airplanes it was a airman rate
If it had anything to do with building something on land it was a Constructionman’
Not nearly as hard as counting all those stripes on an Air Force uniform.
Yeah but the proper form of address is still the same: “Joe” “Charlie” “Frank” etc. 😉
Let’s break the ranks down simply.
PETTY OFFICERS
If they have an eagle with chevrons, you call them petty officer.
CHIEFS
If the chevrons have an arch over the top you call them Chief. A senior chief has 1 star and a master chief has two stars over it. They wear anchors on their collars in khakis.
SCUM
If they have little hash marks on their sleeves or nothing on their sleeves, you call them HEY YOU.
Sorry to have to correct you but ranks in the navy are only for the officers.
Rate = pay grade such as Petty Officer Third Class (E4)
Petty Officer Second (E5) ,etc
Rating = job description such as Boatswain Mate Third (E4) Class, Yeoman Second Class (E5), Steelworker FirstClass(E1Chief Engineman (E7) etc
Non Rating = Seaman Recruit (1), Fireman Apprentice (E2, Hospitalman (E3), etc
Pretty simple but I guess you had to be there.
Chief you are correct and I should have clarified that. Thanks
Yes, sailors can change groups but it is not easy. They need at the very least “A” school and perhaps “B” school and then they have compete in the fleet wide advancement exam. The navy always needs sailors to go from overmanned ratings to undermanned ones. This is encouraged and supported but it is not done on a whim.
To further confuse you army types, lets not forget the rating symbols. We have to learn them in boot camp and some have not changed since WW2. Of course the Navy is always consolidating job descriptions or adding new ones.
Here is another test – Why can’t the Yeoman and Personnel Specialist be consolidated. They can and often do the same tasks especially at small facilities.
Test #2 – Prior to 1948, there were right arm ratings and left arm ratings. I know why they switched but not the reasoning. Can anyone help me here?
Chief, from a Navy Department Memo on the Navy History page (http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/uniforms-and-personal-equipment/mens-uniforms.html):
Right arm rates signified men of the Seaman Branch. The following rates comprised the Seaman Branch during Wrold War II period: Boatswain Mate, Turret Captain, Signalman, Gunner’s Mate, Fire Controlman, Quartermaster, Mineman and Torpedoman’s Mate. Right arm rates were disestablished 2 April 1949. Since 80% of authorized rating badges had been worn on the left sleeve since 1913, the change merely standardized the wearing of rating marks for all ratings in the most practical and economical manner.
So, seems like it was just an effort to make a uniform, well….uniform.
CWO, thanks for putting that up. My dad was a Signalman PO2ND Class in the Pacific in WWII. He was at Guadelcanal and the whole mess that happened there. He always felt lucky to be alive. Anyway, he always was proud to be a “right sleever” yet I never knew what that meant. When I took over as the Social Work Department Director at Beaufort Naval Hospital I would ask every older sailor about the right sleeve business and never got an answer even from the Command Master Chiefs I’d ask. Thank you for solving that mystery for me. Also, the Signalman Rating has gone away from what I understand.
It was done for conformity and standardise production.
This was the same change that added the three stripes of piping to the cuff of the dress blue jumpers. Prior to 1948 the piping had been used to indicate the first three pay grades
Maybe this will help. Or not …
This page actually has a history of the rating badges: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq78-5.htm
Relevant quotes:
1866: “The regulations specified that petty officers of the starboard watch were to wear rating badges on their right sleeves. The left sleeve was to be used for those on the port watch. ”
1913: “Ratings badges were no longer worn on the sleeves corresponding to assigned watches. Right arm rates were to signify men of the Seamen Branch; left arm rates were to be used by personnel of the Artificer Branch, Engine Room Force, and all other petty officers.”
1949: “Right arm rates were disestablished 2 April 1949. All rating badges were to be worn on the left sleeve with the eagle facing to the right.”
So it sounds like there used to be a logic to which sleeve that insignia was on. Over time they decided this was not needed, so they made everyone use the left. I suppose they could have changed it so everyone wore it on both — but then everyone would have had to sew on a new patch.
I don’t remember when this ended, but Chiefs had a long-sleeved khaki suit jacket which had the CPO badge on both sleeves, plus a long-sleeved shirt and tie.
Officers and CPOs were also allowed to wear chambray shirts and dungarees when they were involved in work that would soil their other uniforms.
Certain ratings like powder monkey were still in use until after WWI.
Happy belated Birthday to my fellow Goats!
CTIC(SS)
E4U,
I DO owe you a call. I have been splitting my time between NeuroSurgeryTypeSmokin’HotDoctors (females) at NYU, work and a special project that consumes my after hours .. . hours (wink).
Oustanding article, minor adjustment with respect to Rates and Ratings … Hardly noticed. Kinda link a minor mistake at military ceremony, few notice and it NEVER takes away from intended purpose.
Again, great job with your pen … Keep writing.
I particulary liked the blood reference, I cut myself in kitchen this morning preparing oranges. My hand bled quite well and rather than the aroma of citrus filling the kichen, my wife had to open all of the windows in the house to remove the gut sickening smell of DFM.
No worries, The boy is re-enlisting and putting in a packet for stay 21
Army rank simplified:
If it’s shiny or bright….salute it.
It was much easier when all you needed to know was:
If it’s wearing a brown shirt, be prepared to salute it. If it’s wearing the anchor thingies instead of officer rank, treat it respectfully, very respectfully.
An old joke my dad used to tell me (CDR USN) is that Chiefs and above walk with a limp and crook in the finger. The limp is from the keys and crook is from the coffee cup.
You neglected to mention the single largest rating in the Navy (Hospitalman)and the only enlisted Corps (the Hospital Corps)
HR/HA/HN/HM3/HM2/HM1/HMC/HMCS/HMCM
Marines: If it moves, salute it. If it doesn’t move, paint it.
The article answers a question I’ve had for many year (but never cared enough to research). Part of my childhood was spent in Portsmouth, VA, and I had seen a number of sailors in uniform and noticed hash marks were almost uniformly red, with an occasional gold. My Dad was Army, so I knew about hash marks and when I asked about the gold ones was told that was the Navy’s answer to the GCM. That made sense and I filed and forgot. Years later in 1968, while on R&R in Taipai, I notice a CPO with light blue stripes. With other things on my mind at the time, and being easily distracted, I never thought to ask about the blue stripes. Now I know.
I was with you up until the stripe colors, then everything went kinda fuzzy and I got dizzy. Thanks, nice try but thanks anyway. I’ll just stick with, “Yea, that guy’s in the Navy”.
Sine you have gone to the trouble of explaining US Navy rank and rating system, perhaps you can tackle the intricacies of the difference between “your” and “you’re”; and when our special contributor has mastered that, he can move up to properly using “their”, “there”, and “they’re”. Then, and only then, he may be able to close on that second sale of software to the federal government. And as a bonus, he can be instructed when to use “than” and “then”.
You want him to go back to first grade and take English grammar all over again?
Hack, that’s brilliant!!!
Don’t forget “its” and “it’s”, or the difference between “flout” and “flaunt”.
“Who” and “Whom”
When I was in (63-69) E8-E9 was still a relatively new critter. Your post prompted me to look it up and it seems those were only around from 1958 on.
New definition of “Trivial” maybe – but they were rare enough to be of note.
“An E-7 is a Chief Petty Officer They wear 3 chevrons with an eagle centered above and a rocker that encloses the eagle”
The rocker encloses the rating not the eagle, The eagle is perched on the rocker.
I always wondered why the Airman group wore green and Construction wore blue. Seems to me it should be the other way around.
Service strip is not only for four years service. A minority cruise, enlist when 17 until 21, eaarns a stripe. (hashmark)
This makes a little sense.. When I was flown to Germany after my Bo Bo. One of the people that came over with me had that anchor on his ACUs when I came too. I swear every navy person was bending over backwards to kiss his ass Lol,,,, there was a navy Doc that I has issues with. that I thought was a captain but it turns out was a LT ??? When he refused to send me back to theater and was talking circles about my foot. This Navy chief tore him a new ass. And finally. Was told straight up by this doc about the seriousness of my injury….
So in the end I’m still totally Confused! ! ! !
That’s probably the reason why you rarely here of someone stealing valor with the navy
Tracking like a SCUD
Ummmm….
As an Army Grunt, I still have no clue what is what in the USN ranking system…I’ll just stay here on the sidelines and watch…
Somebody’s bound to screw it up and get someone pissed off with all that stuff to remember !!!
LOL !!!
I’m with you on that Thunderstixx. My head is Spinning Lol….
Okay, now don’t forget that service stripes go from red to gold (as do the chevrons/rocker) after 12 years good conduct service. And yeah, while rare, one can go from gold stripes back to red if one gets caught.
Oh, and of course, there are the quality badges such as ESWS, SS, AC, AW, SCW, etc. So you might have someone who is a E-5 submarine qualified Machinist Mate, or more simply, MM2(SS). Finally, even within a specific rating, there may be further breakdown, such a MM nukes, or MM auxiliarymen, aka A-gang.
Hope that wasn’t your head I just hear exploding.
And a LT can be a Captain and so can a Commander and a Lt’s rank insignia looks like a Captain in the other Services….
Can we help it that you made your rank insignias wrong?
Ahem…the Army is the Senior Service. I.e., we were here first. /G
sj. Exactly.. My comment up top I was explaining that oddity. also talk about confusing ha ha ha… The funny thing to was the ranks with the eagle and the strip or strips below. Talk about a lot of people saluting the wrong rank Lol… It was funny as hell watching it happen all the time in Iraq
Yeah, the damned thing looks like a fat full bird rank in bad light. Nothing like saluting a twenty something year old Navy E-4…they need to get out of multicam and go back to dungarees 🙂
Bahahahahahahahaha 🙂 🙂
So damn true 🙂
…So a Petty Officer Third class gets one chevron, and a Petty Officer First class gets three? Um, sure, ok.
At least now I know where Star Trek came up with the uniform colors: red, green, and blue. 🙂
Great information but would you mind addressing the Hospital Corpsmen? The HM ranks? I cannot understand those for the life of me. Do the green suit and blue suit Corpsmen have the same ranks (probably a stupid question).
Thanks!
HM carry the same rate/rank structure as all other rates in the Navy, as mentioned in the original article above.
HM’s are more likely to wear Marine uniforms (when FMF and attached with Marines), but would still wear Navy rank and insignia, which can sometimes be confusing to other branches.
Thank you. Yes, very confusing to this civilian
As a Marine on ship we kept it simple. 3 ranks.
Paint chipper.
Non paint chipper.
The Skipper.
Rah?
Even simpler: if they’re on a boat call them squid or pier queer. If they’re not on a boat, call them doc (those are the only squids you’d see as a grunt anyway)
This was the greatest thread ever. Thanks for all the comments.
It’s all just clicks and whistles to me.
Speaking of whistles….splain that whistle you guys use. Piping folks on/off etc.
The boatswain’s pipe…(and to further confuse you, it’s pronounced BOSUN vice BOAT-SWAIN).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boatswain%27s_call
This article doesn’t mention it, but when piping officers aboard/ashore it is used in conjunction with a bell where the number of times they ring the bell depends on the officer’s rank.
So E4Y started off with a post saying it wasn’t complicated and then proceeded to show how complicated it was…
When I came into the Army they still had the ranks of Sp/5 and Sp/6. So if you were a specialist/4 and got promoted you were…still a “specialist.” You had to assume all the extra duties of an E-5 like headcount, flag detail, etc, but you didn’t even get to be called “sergeant.”
Fortunately for me by the time I made E-5 in 1989 they had done away with all Specialist ranks except Sp/4 which simply became Specialist.
The other funny thing about the Navy is the way they do acronyms differently from all the other services. For example, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Group Atlantic.
In any other service the acronym would be something like CO, NSWGA but in the Navy it’s ComNavSpeWarGruLant. 😀
That last acronym looks like it was written by a short bus rider we all know and love.
Enigma, you also didn’t mention about the combination of ratings at the E-9 level (all the OF-7/Seabee ratings, plus several from other communities as well).
EO & CM combine to EQ (equipmentman)
BU, SW, EA combine to CU (constructionman)
UT & CE combine to UC (utilitiesman)
For instance, a Senior Chief Equipment Operator (EOCS) who gets promoted becomes a Master Chief Equipmentman (EQCM).
I always thought half the confusion stemmed from the Army and Marine Corps using time hallowed ranks named in French and Latin, while the Navy used this new-fangled, barbarous tongue called…English.
Okay, after a good night’s sleep I thought I would try this once more. I reread Enigma4you’s post…SLOWLY, while also taking notes in NotePad. I read all the thread comments again too. I am no less confused than the first time yesterday. In fact more so.
Then Open Channel D in a comment above, goes and adds all the HR/HA/HN/HM3/HM2/HM1/HMC/HMCS/HMCM stuff. Okay then.
My head now officially hurts. We used to call it the “Mnemonic Plague”, in electronics.
Sure, I understand Army and Air Force ranks, nomenclatures and mnemonics so you would think the Navy’s stuff would come easy too, right? Uh…no, not no but hell no!
In fact Karl Childers from Sling Blade now has a better chance of understanding this than I do. I am pretty sure that by the time I figure out all the Navy’s ranks, rates, abbreviations and so forth and am able to rattle them off like an old salt…I’ll be able to splice DNA.
I was just as confused by the Air Force rank structure when working with them. It looks as if they combine some of the ranks from each of the different branches in their structure (Senior Master Sergeant, Chief Master Sergeant, etc.).
p.s. Accidentally reported comment instead of hitting reply button at first. Admin please ignore.
Don’t feel badly about confusing Air Force rank; it’s simple, number of stripes plus one = pay grade. zero to three stripes you call Airman; four to seven stripes you call Sergeant; eight stripes you call Chief.
Sometimes even the Navy gets their own rates confused. The best example was years ago when the Navy Detachment was just down the hall from my shop. One day I mentioned to the Chief that one of my civilian employees had been a Coxwain during WWII and he might have some stories that might be of interest. She asked me to repeat myself, so I told her he was a Coxwain. She went off in a huff. Later the civil servant asked why the CPO had asked him what his job was in WWII and why she had left in a huff.
According to the Yeoman at the Navy Detachment Commander’s Office; she had filed a complaint against the civil servant and me for harassment. Fortunately for all hands, the Captain set her straight.
No one has mentioned NEC’s, or Naval Enlisted Classifications codes yet.
And the right arm rates were senior in a boat.
Oh, don’t do that. They just stopped crying.
Further to my question that has not been answered re whistles (pipes): why do Navy folks (and Marines) feel the need to wear a hat in all their official pictures? Just wondering.
it’s a cover, not a hat
Not in the Army. G/
Makes no sense to me to call it a cover when inside some structure or conveyance which provides much greater cover than does a hat. Maybe it comes from a time when sailors didn’t have a good place to store the thing when indoors, and the hats were quite bulky?
Would rather hear the real answer, but maybe no one knows, so our guesses are as good as any.