Navy to Restore Enlisted Rating Titles After Months of Criticism

U.S. Navy Institute ^ | December 20, 2016 | Sam LaGrone

[Retain Mike]

The Navy is performing a brisk about-face on a controversial plan that shelved ratings titles for enlisted sailors, according to a message Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson that was set for release on Wednesday morning but was leaked on social media on Tuesday night.

[Retain Mike]

This looks like great news to me.

[BuffaloJack]

I hated going from radarman to operations specialist in the early 70s. Going to just petty officer would be worse/
How far back are they going to restore them?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

The Trump effect.

Take all this with a grain of salt as I'm going from memory, but I saw a few polls last years -- Military is still about 70% Republican/Conservative, and every branch preferred Trump EXCEPT the Navy, which preferred Sanders.

When you look at some of the crap that's been going on -- safe spaces at the Naval Academy, mandatory transgender sensitivity training, no money for real training because of all the social engineering, ratings changes, uniform changes -- it seems that the Navy is the most damaged of all the service branches.

[DaveA37]

“Radioman 1st Class” here back in 1958

[The Klingon]

This is GREAT news.........these ratings are part of your identity in the Navy and a great source of pride to the sailors.......for the Navy Leadership to reverse took two things.....overwhelming rejection at the deck plate level and the Trump win.

The Navy has to be rebuilt and expanded.....this is a good start.

[CaptainAmiigaf]

This old “IM3” is also delighted. I looked on my rating badge as a thing to be proud of. I’d say the vast majority of the EM’s did.
NOW, how about going back to the TRADITIONAL method of naming U.S.Navy ships by their traditional naming manner.
All we had to do was hear the name of the ship and we knew just what it was.
The ONLY change I sort of agree with is that due to the passing of the battleships, they now honor states by giving the state name to a submarine.
Personally, I detest the idea of naming carriers after people, no matter who. For those outside the Navy, carriers were named for historic BATTLES and/or historic SHIPS.
We once had a Navy that was rightfully proud of its history.

[jimfree]

Personnelman First Class on way to commissioning in 1980. The “book and quill”.

[reed13k]

Yep and the historic ships were named for freedom loving concepts: Enterprise, Independence, etc

[sparklite2]

“How about radioman?”
“He’s still dead, Jim.”

[Gamecock]

Pissed off the rank and file members, did they?

[11th_VA]

Bravo Zulu !!!

[DPMD]

“...safe spaces at the Naval Academy...”

Huh? Source please.

[Ace's Dad]

RE: Personnelman First Class on way to commissioning in 1980. The “book and quill”.

PH3; Photographer's Mate Third, on way to commissioning in 1970. Proud to have been a "Photo Mate."

[aomagrat]

Looks like the CNO got Trumped.

[oldtech]

How about getting rid of the people who dreamed up & accomplished this “change”?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

http://freebeacon.com/issues/naval-academy-hosting-transgender-101-training-midshipmen/

[Jet Jaguar]

Active duty ping.

[Pecos]

Ship naming and people: After serving in the Navy for 20 years, my personal standards would be fairly simple:

1. Never name a ship after a politician.

2. Never name a ship after someone that is not safely 50 years dead, unless the person died bravely in battle defending the country.

3. Never name a ship after anyone that bad-mouthed the military.

[WayneS]

The Navy’s very first aircraft carrier was named after a person.

[poconopundit]

Great... so we go back to the Navy of yore -- and the deplorable names and insults that sailors love: snipes, pollywogs, shellbacks, mud suckers, twidgets, and deck apes.

We drink again at the same scuttlebutt as John Paul Jones. And we drump all trash (like Boobamba) clear of the fantail.

I hope that Trump restores the pride of individual ships and boats. Admiral Zumwalt was the one who started to sannnnnatize the Navy. Let's go back to sailor pride in their own crew, the kind that still lives in college football.

Pride is a human vice that pays dividends. Bring back the seaman tradition and names that connect today's Navy to the glories of Old Ironsides, Trafalgar, Tripoli, Leyte Gulf, and Midway.