A portion of Sailors enter the fleet “undesignated,” and are assigned to general career paths such as aviation (airman), deck (seaman), and engineering (fireman). Most Sailors achieve their rating through qualification at advanced training schools after basic training. To complicate matters further, the Navy considers Sailors in the E-1 to E-3 pay grades “nonrated,” meaning they do not yet hold a rating.
Thus, the Navy combines rates and ratings in Sailors’ titles. A Sailor of equivalent rank/rate with a rating of boatswain’s mate would be Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Jones. For example, where a notional Sergeant Smith may have a military occupational specialty (MOS) of infantryman in the Army, he would simply be designated Sergeant Smith, both in conversation and on official documents. The second unique aspect of Navy enlisted rates is the inextricable linkage of rates, which represent a Sailor’s pay grade, and ratings, which denote an occupational specialty. The first point of divergence is the term “rate,” used in the Navy rather than the more-familiar term “rank,” which is reserved for naval officers and warrant officers. The United States Navy’s enlisted rank and rate system is unique among the armed services.
#Navy enlisted ranks in order series#
The other posts in the series discuss warrant officer ranks () and officer ranks (). The history of Navy ranks is equally complicated, and includes an assortment of ranks that no longer exist and some that have disappeared, reappeared, and disappeared again! In this part of a three-part series, we look at the evolution of the Navy’s commissioned officer ranks. Navy’s unique rank structure can be confusing. To outsiders, especially members of the non-maritime services, the U.S. By Nicholas Roland, Historian, Naval History and Heritage Command
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