Good Day,
Quick question on what a US Navy Petty Officer can be called by subordinates. I should say what they can be officially called to avoid any name calling. 
Can you give me all the options please?
Cheers.
I’m a civilian, but I work at a Naval Hospital and I believe it depends on rating. For example, a Hospital Corpsman Second Class would be called HM2, while a Culinary Specialist First Class would be CS1. That’s the impression I’ve got around here anyway.
Petty Officer Smith or Petty Officer Jones.
I occasionally heard the format mentioned above (I was MM2 minor7flat5, as a Machinists Mate 2nd class), but it was much more common to hear the ambiguous “Petty Officer Jones”
This is correct, particularly going UP the chain of command. A non-rated person is often addressed by just his/her last name, but more formally as Seaman Smith or Seaman Apprentice Jones. Most people I knew who were actually named Smith went by Smitty, regardless of rank, unless in a formal setting. Peer-to-peer, as in E-6 to E-6, just last names are usually used unless the person is a friend. And of course a Chief is always addressed as ‘Chief’, ‘Senior Chief’, or ‘Master Chief’ (E7-E9).
Usually “Chief” for any of these, except in a formal context.
I always found it very unwise to address a Master Chief as “Chief”. It’s like addressing a Sgt. Major as ‘Sarge’: you’ll likely survive the encounter, but you may wish you hadn’t.
Petty Officer First Class(retired) TonyFop here. Petty Officer Fop in a formal situation. AZ1 Fop in an informal setting.
Oh, I should add that if I was the only AZ1 in the room, the name was not necessary. If one of my Airmen needed help, he or she would say “AZ1, how do I do this?” To which I would reply, “What does the book say?”
Must be an airedale thing; I never heard someone addressed that way in 23 years.
I would use the person’s rate and rank. Rate essentially means his/her job. There are abbreviations. For example I was an avaition ordnanceman so the abbreviation was AO. The rank is…well… their rank. Like petty officer 3rd class, 2nd class, chief, etc. I was an AO2. If you are addressing a 3rd, 2nd, or 1st class petty officer verbally, you should address them as “petty officer____ (name).” A chief, senior chief, or master chief, should be addressed as such.
If you are addressing them in writing, then AO1, MM2, BM3, AOC (chief), etc. followed by their name.
On my ship I don’t believe “Master” was ever included in an informal setting.
Now that I think about it, I don’t remember any other nukes referring to peers as MM2 so-and-so or ET1 someone-else. I heard this letters+number combo mostly from non-nukes.
A couple of factors might be in play here: in the nuclear field everyone was at least a 3rd class PO (unless they had been a bad boy), so it didn’t differentiate much or mean anything special, and there were only 3 ratings: Machinist’s Mate, Electrician’s Mate, and Electronics Technician, and we pretty much knew what job our shipmates did.
I don’t think we were different in that nukes were an insular crowd, keeping to ourselves. I imagine the other departments were similar.
Of course, our chiefs were usually called Chief, Senior Chief, or Master Chief, as Chefguy said.
It’s a nitpick, but the Navy technically doesn’t have an enlisted rank system. It rate and ratings, with the former being the pay grade and the latter being the specialty (his job), so as an AO1, your rating was AO and your rate was first class petty officer. That said, rate and rank were used pretty much interchangeably.
It varies with the situation. At least that was my experience in the Coast Guard.
First of all, there are 3 types of enlisted personnel: 1) non-rates, B) Petty Officers, and III) Chief Petty Officers.
Second of all, let’s ignore Boot Camp. Titles and forms of address there don’t really relate much to the real Guard.
In informal situations, Non-Rates and Petty Officers were on a first name or last name basis. Chiefs were always addressed as Chief (Senior Chief, or Master Chief) or Chief (SC, MC) Lastname by their inferiors.
So, what’s a formal situation? I did a tour as an instructor in one of the Electronics Schools. My classes weren’t basic electronics or theory. My students were there to be trained on the specific equipment that would be at their next duty station. So, my classes were a mixture of Non-Rates, POs, CPOs, occasionally a Warrant Officer, and once a Lieutenant Commander. The Non-Rates would address me as Petty Officer Lastname. The POs addressed me by my last name, and CPOs, WOs, and the LtCDR called me whatever they wanted to. I addressed the NRs and POs by their last names, the Chiefs by Chief (SC/MC) Lastname, and the WOs and LtCDR as “Sir” or “Mister Lastname”. *
The PA system was different kind of formal. If you were paged, you’d be paged by your rating and last name. That is, I’d be paged as “ET2 Lastname”. If I was answering the phone, I’d identify myself as “Petty Officer Lastname”. “Electronics Technician Second Class Lastname” was only used when they gave me a Good Conduct Medal or when I was the guest of honor at a Captain’s Mast.
*Officially, Commissioned Officers up to and including LtCDR were to be addressed as “Mister Lastname”, but no LtCDR would be offended if you addressed him as “Commander Lastname”.
That is a perfect example, thank you sir.
What about female officers? Are they addressed as “Ms Lastname” or by rank?
“Ma’am”, “Ms Lastname” for LtCDR and lower, “Commander/Captain/Admiral Lastname” if senior. I suspect Rank Lastname is used a lot to avoid Miss/Ms/Mrs errors. The best way to avoid those errors is to say something like “Ma’am, do you prefer Miss, Ms, or Missus?”
Just out of curiosity, does anybody know of a Star Trek situation in real life, where a female officer was intentionally addressed as “Sir”?
During boot camp, the phrases “Sir, yes sir!” and “Sir, no sir!” can become so ingrained in one’s psyche that it can be difficult to make the switch to “Ma’am”.
Or to stop calling everybody with a stripe on his sleeve “sir”, for that matter.