How do you address a petty officer?

Answer 1

The Navy (and Coast Guard) are different from other services. We have a Rate (similar to Rank in other branches) and a Rating (similar to MOS). Your Rate is your pay-grade, E-1 is a Seaman Recruit, E-6 is a Petty Officer 1st Class, etc... Your Rating is your job, ET is an Electronics Technician, and FT is a Fire Control Technician, for example. Specific to your question: there are two broad classes of Petty Officers, non-commisioned officers and senior non-commisioned officers. E-4 (Petty Officer 3rd Class), E-5 (2nd Class), and E-6 (1st Class) are non-commissioned officers and you can formally address them in three ways: # Simply as Petty Officer, # An abbreviated form of address such as PO3 (for 3rd Class) or PO1 (for 1st Class), # By combining the Petty Officers Rate and Rating into a single form of address; for example a Machinists Mate who is an Petty Officer 3rd Class could be addressed as MM3, or a Boatswains Mate who is a Petty Officer 1st Class could be addressed at BM1. If you know a Petty Officers last name, you can add it to the greeting as well, i.e., Petty Officer Smith, or MM3 Smith. Addressing a Chief Petty Officer is easier. A E-7 is a Chief Petty Officer, a E-8 is a Senior Chief Petty Officer, and a E-9 is a Master Chief Petty Officer. In practice you would refer to them as Chief, Senior Chief, and Master Chief, respectively. Like the more junior Petty Officers, you can combine a Chief's address with the last name, i.e. Chief Smith, or Master Chief Smith.