JAG and Petty Officers

When I was in, '68-72, being called Petty Officer along your last name
was the same as your parents calling you by your whole name. It
usually ment that you had to stand tall before the man. If someone
used petty officer before my name I knew that I was in trouble or
going to be in trouble.

Normally - all below chief - were addressed by their last name or
nickname - depending on the circumstances.

Addressing someone by rank and last name is proper etiquette. For E-3 and
below it is okay to just call them by their last name.

"Jim McCartan" wrote in message
om...
When I was in, '68-72, being called Petty Officer along your last name
was the same as your parents calling you by your whole name. It
usually ment that you had to stand tall before the man. If someone
used petty officer before my name I knew that I was in trouble or
going to be in trouble.

Normally - all below chief - were addressed by their last name or
nickname - depending on the circumstances.

I think, no, I am certain that this varies between communities and
even individual commands. Squadrons next door to each other can have
different nuances, never mind on coasts thousands of miles aways.

What is appropriate or inappropriate in one place may be verbose,
rude, too formal, not formal enough in another. A lot of things are
always a little different at sea too.

Nicknames or use of first names between Officer and Enlisted is
normally inappropriate, but I've met people who also thought that was
OK in certain circumstances.

Just some general thoughts to put it in perspective.

And we are leaving out Warrant Officers in this discussion. In 2/61 I
reported aboard VAH-5 in Forrestal early in a Med cruise. My 'jg stripes
were tarnished, but the ship was full (6,000 men in those days) so I was
assigned a room with a W-4 in warrant country. I was not only just an
O-2 but an airdale NAO(B) with an orange flight suit. I don't remember
my roommate's name, or that he even spoke to me. I don't even know what
I would have addressed him with. Within a few weeks I was moved to the
03 level, under the forward port cat where the port passageway
dog-legged, with the xo of the marine detachment, a West Point grad.
Everything was fine until he put up a recruiting poster of a Marine in
dress blues with the words, "The Marine Corps Builds Men!" on my closet
door which was visible all the way down that port passageway when our
door was open.
I took Miss February 1961 to our photo intel lab and our first class I
forget the air intel rate McKelvey carefully trimmed her and mounted her
on white oak tag and in the same shades of red and blue he wrote, "The
Navy Makes Women!" I taped it side by side with the Marine poster. My
2/LT didn't talk to me for two weeks. When sailors or Marines came to
the room for counselling or whatever, he would take the posters down so
they wouldn't get the wrong idea about us. I don't think I addressed him
as LT or Mister, just Ted.
I do have a slide of the two posters, I've sent it to nephews in NROTC.
I see Forrestal parked alongside Saratoga in Newport when I visit my
oldest daughter's Army family there. I would give anything to go aboard
with a flashlight, I think I could still find my way around.
Joel McEachen VAH-5
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Mike Kanze wrote:
I don't recall seeing what Rick saw during the 1970 - 1975 period, but that
may not mean much.

In the places I was stationed, anyone below Chief was addressed simply by
their last name. Chiefs were always "Chief." "Mister" as a form of address
for Navy officers below O-5 was used increasingly infrequently, although it
was ALWAYS used for Midshipmen and officer candidates. The trend toward
addressing a superior by his / her role was becoming more pronounced ("Hey,
OPS!"). The Skipper and XO were always AT LEAST that, if not "Sir" /
"Ma'am."

One thing to remember: Donald P. Bellisario, JAG's producer, is a former
Marine. I've often suspected that much of the titular formality one
observes on JAG (and which I rarely observed during my active duty time)
comes from Bellisario's experiences in the USMC of the 1950s. Again, just
my suspicion.