Navy Ratings

Introduction

Rating Structure
The U.S. Navy rating structure is confusing to most people outside the organization.   A brief overview of Navy enlisted rate and ratings follows.  Two similar sounding terms are used to describe Navy enlisted status - rate and rating.  Rate equates to military pay grade and rating is one's occupational specialty.  Petty officer third class (PO3) is a rate.  Boatswain Mate is a rating.  Used in combination, Boatswain Mate Third Class (BM3), defines both the rate, petty officer third class, and rating Boatswain Mate.

Pay Grade
Pay grade constitutes a numbering system from junior to senior, and is linear across all five branches of the U.S. military.  The lowest military enlisted pay grade is E-1 and the highest E-9 in the Army as well as the Navy.  Officer pay grades include W-1 through W-5 for warrant officers and O-1 through O-10 for officers.  Enlisted personnel may be promoted from enlisted to warrant officer status and in some cases directly to officer status.  In example, the writer served as an E-1 through E-7, W-1 through W-4, and O-2 through O-6, sixteen different pay grades in a four decade career. 

Rate or rank?
Rate, such as First Class Petty Officer, describes the Navy enlisted pay grade E-6.   Officers do not have rates but are said to have rank.  Lieutenant (rank) describes a Naval officer of pay grade O-3. The officer's occupational specialty is described in a numerical code. 

Rating
A Navy rating is defined as an occupation that consists of specific skills and abilities.  Each rating has its own specialty badge which is worn on the left sleeve by all qualified men and women in that field.  In the Navy and Coast Guard, pay grades E-4 through E-9 fall within a rating and reflect a distinct level of achievement within the promotion pyramid. 

General ratings.   Broad occupational fields such as Electronics Technician,  Machinist Mate or Electrician are general ratings.  During World War I the Navy survived with but thirteen ratings.  Through the years the Navy has used over 100 ratings with 60+ remaining in use today.   In some cases  ratings combine at the Senior Chief Petty Officer (E-8) or Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9) level.  In example, CU Constructionman combines the Builder (BU), Engineering Aide (EA and) Steelworker (SW) Seabee ratings at the Senior Chief and Master Chief Petty Officer levels. 
 
Service ratings.  Service ratings are sub categories of general ratings that require further specialized training and qualifications.  They are established and deleted with service requirements and changes in personnel management philosophy.  In example, Gunner's Mate, a general rating, has been at times divided into the service ratings of Gunner's Mate Guns (GMG) and Gunner's Mate Missiles (GMM).  Service ratings are most used in the E-4 and E-5 pay grade with the ratings merging at the senior Petty Officer level.

Navy Enlisted Classifications (NEC).  Numerical codes appended to a rating are heavily used in the modern Navy to indicate specialized qualifications.  For example, a Master-at-Arms First Class with a specialty of handling drug detecting dogs, is a MA1 (2005).  A list of these NEC codes is provided in the Navy Personnel Command's reference library  NAVPERS 180086F.  The pdf file located off site.  Note: NEC's are undergoing major revision (July 2017).

Emergency ratings.  Emergency ratings may be established in time of war.  World War Two saw twenty-two Navy Specialist ratings and the Coast Guard used six additional Specialist ratings. The term Specialist evolved to Emergency Service Rating and finally to Emergency Rating in the thirty-two years of use.  Emergency rating badges are distinguished by a letter of the alphabet enclosed in a diamond below the eagle. One example is Welfare & Recreation Leader,  a "W" inside a diamond.  This emergency rating most often worked with the chaplain.  The rate was discontinued following World War Two.  For a number of years the chaplain's assistant was a Yeoman with NEC 2525.  The YN (2525) became a full fledged rating in 1979 as the present day Religious Program Specialist, RP.

Non rate
A non rate (not rated) is one serving in pay grade E-1 to E-3.  The non rate is further subdivided by a general career path, aviation (airman), deck (seaman), engineering (fireman), construction (constructionman), and medical (hospitalman).   

Many bluejackets enter advanced training schools following recruit training to complete the entry level requirements for a career field.  Graduates are designated in an occupational specialty even though they have not achieved Petty Officer status of pay grade E-4 and up.   CSSN Jane P. Jones  has passed the specific career field qualifications for entry into the general rating of Culinary Specialist, but is not a petty officer.  CS denotes the career field of Culinary Specialist and SN is the abbreviation for Seaman, the non rated E-3 pay grade.

Sailors who go directly to a station, ship or squadron without specialized school training following recruit training are encouraged to select a career field.   Through correspondence courses provided for self study and on-the-job training (OJT), they may qualify for entry into a rating.  This path is called "striking for rate."   A seaman working in the deck department of a ship will by work assignment find herself most often in training for the deck rating of Boatswain Mate.  Many "strikers" will venture into other departments to become a Yeoman, Damage Controlman or other rating as openings occur.  Many technical ratings are restricted to formal school graduates and thereby closed to "strikers."  Having experienced the width and depth of Navy life, most "strikers" become excellent petty officers. 

Note : The U.S. Navy announced on 29 September 2016 the historic naval rating system would be scuttled and replaced with a  Navy Occupational Specialty Code (NOS) - numbers in lieu of the traditional rates. Following a cry from the Fleet and former Navy personnel the move was suspended by the CNO on 21 December 2016.  The rating system will not be sunk but altered at a future date.   See news article here.