# Navy Dopers - A question about your 'ratings'.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-dopers-a-question-about-your-ratings/143956>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 20, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-dopers-a-question-about-your-ratings/143956 "2002-12-20T02:31:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-dopers-a-question-about-your-ratings/143956/1 "2002-12-20T02:31:53Z")

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I’m just a confused Air Force Civil Engineer. 😃

Just what _is_ a ‘yeoman’ and a ‘boatswain’ (I know it’s pronounced “bosun”). Is this a general rating used for ‘unclassified’ personnel? What are they tasked to do? Are they specialists or generalists?

Tripler  
Like I said, I’m confused.

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**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-dopers-a-question-about-your-ratings/143956/2 "2002-12-20T02:33:09Z")

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Shoot. Forgot where I [originally found my question.](http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ranks/ratings/ratings.html)

Tripler  
Again, curious.

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**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/navy-dopers-a-question-about-your-ratings/143956/3 "2002-12-20T02:59:37Z")

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Aaaaah. Search is a beautiful thing. . .

[I think I found my answer.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=131209&highlight=yeoman)

Thanks!  
Tripler  
A thread totally comprising of my own posts. Wow.