Slight tangent… a great photo I wanted to share, from the USS Constitution’s 200th-birthday celebration in 1997. Her escorts are the frigate USS Halyburton and the destroyer USS Ramage: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/USS_Constitution_Sail200d.jpg
My numbers were taken from the US Navy’s website (except the quote from Wikipedia, which was a clearer summary of what was said on the Navy website. The ‘excess’ Admirals may be retired (flag officers don’t ‘retire’ in the sense of terminating their relationship with the service but are instead put on the retired list, subject to recall in time of emergency) or authorized by Presidential proclamation or something.
This history of the Commodore rank is quite a confusing mess.
Fair enough.
Congress has to approve promotions? Is this just in the case of USN admirals and Army/AF/Marine generals, or all officers?
Like other nominations to civilian positions, the Senate approves nominations for most military officer promotions. IIRC, promotions below the rank of major/lieutenant commander are not submitted to the Senate, and each promotion to or above those ranks must be confirmed by the Senate. Each time a senior officer changes jobs (e.g., when Admiral Roughead moved from his four-star Fleet Forces Command job to Chief of Naval Operations) also requires Senate confirmation.
Are we talking about rubber-stamp approval, or do they actually vote on it? Seems like it’d take a lot of time.
For some nominations, it consists of a list of many names. It might say, “For appointment to the grade of Commander, 523 names, beginning with Aaron B. Aaronson, and ending with Zebulon Q. Xylophone,” and then the name of each and every person being nominated would be printed. All of those nominations would be approved as a single matter, usually by voice vote, by the appropriate committee and the whole Senate. The same process happens for the other uniformed services (like NOAA) and the Foreign Service in the State Department. These things are routinely approved by the Senate, it isn’t like there’s a debate held on these things, unless it is a senior position and there’s some controversy or importance to the nomination (like a few years ago when General Petraeus was nominated to be the top general in Iraq).
Holding up approval of a list of promotions can also give a senator a chance to get in a dig against the Administration, or to try to force a change in a Pentagon policy she doesn’t like, or to embarrass/punish officers for past perceived misconduct (as happened with several Navy admirals involved to varying degrees in the Tailhook scandal, IIRC).
But yes, most times these promotion lists breeze through.
You don’t* have *to have a Master Chief (E9) as Command Chief of every unit, just as every captain-of-a-ship is not a Captain (O6).
I understand that (I’m a retired Navy EMC). It’s just that the job title is Command Senior Chief, not Command Master Chief (or, in the case of submarines, Chief Of The Boat.)
Thinking about it since I first brought this up, it may have something to do with the fact that the Connie’s MSC has retained his old rating designation. Starting about 8 years ago or so, whenever someone was designated as a CMC, their rating designation changed to something new (can’t remember what that new designation is, though.) It may be that one of the legal requirements to get that designator is to be an E-9, so when an E-8 (damn even-numbered chief) holds that position, the job title has to change to reflect his rank.
Exactly. I don’t know if it’s a legal requirement, but in my experience, if the senior enlisted person assigned to a unit is a Senior Chief Petty Officer, he/she is designated the Command Senior Chief. If the senior enlisted person is a Master Chief Petty Officer, he/she is designated the Command Master Chief.
As you say, on a submarine, they would be designated the Chief of the Boat (COB) in either case.
I thought the job title was “Senior Enlisted Advisor” and the rate was (depending on pay grade) “Command Chief Petty Officer,” “Command Senior Chief Petty Officer,” or “Command Master Chief Petty Officer.”
What exactly are the duties and functions of the uppermost grades of enlisted man – E-7 and up?
The exact duties will depend on the exact billet the Chief was assigned to.
Generally, though, the Chief Petty Officer is supposed to be a true “leader”, and this is even partly acknowledged by the fact that they wear khaki colored working uniforms that look much the same as the officers uniform.
The Chief is a manager, and mentor.
They are supposed to know the rules, and they are also supposed to know how to get things done “in the real world”. (They should have about 10 years active service by the time they have earned their rank, so they should be pretty familiar with military life and regulations.)
They share a bond with a lot of tradition behind the rank (and responsibilities), and they help each other out.
http://www.goatlocker.org/resources/cpo/history/creed1.htm
They are supposed to anticipate what can “go wrong” in plans and activities, and be ready with solutions, much moreso than when they were a Petty Officer First Class.
As a lot of the very junior enlisted (and to some extent, officer) can still have some “youthful exuberance” left over from their teen years, a Chief may have to learn how to deal with managing these people in a manner that benefits both the service member, and the service.
… Of course, there are good and bad Chiefs, just as there are good and bad leaders everywhere else in life.
From Navy Personnel:
February 13th, 2012
For FY-2013, the projected United States Navy active duty end-strength according to the Department of the Navy budget estimates:
Commissioned Officers
0-10 Admiral
10
0-9 Vice Admiral
37
0-8 Rear Admiral (UH)
74
0-7 Rear Admiral (LH)
114
0-6 Captain
3,235
0-5 Commander
6,738
0-4 Lieutenant Commander
9,525
0-3 Lieutenant
17,540
0-2 Lieutenant (JG)
6,331
0-1 Ensign
6,149
TOTAL
49,753
Warrant Officers
W-5 Warrant Officer
59
W-4 Warrant Officer
352
W-3 Warrant Officer
617
W-2 Warrant Officer
517
TOTAL
1,545
Total Officer Personnel
51,298
Enlisted Personnel
E-9 Master Chief Petty Officer
2,414
E-8 Senior Chief Petty Officer
5,726
E-7 Chief Petty Officer
19,715
E-6 1st Class Petty Officer
45,670
E-5 2nd Class Petty Officer
60,339
E-4 3rd Class Petty Officer
61,653
E-3 Seaman
44,005
E-2 Seaman Apprentice
17,071
E-1 Seaman Recruit
10,319
Total Enlisted
266,912
Total Officer and Enlisted
318,210
Midshipmen
4,490
TOTAL END STRENGTH
322,700
So the answer is roughly 235 if you don’t count Commodores who are Captains acting as Admirals and so there are not more Admirals than ships. But it does not matter cuz the Army has more boats than the Navy, so loan a few to the Army. LOL.
Drinking Good Coffee and berating Ensigns and Non-Coms.
Really? Are you including, like, zodiac dinghies or something?
It was probably somewhat less back in 2009, when this thread was started.