The problem is that that’s not funny, because it doesn’t rhyme with “penis.” I like some amusement with my etymology.
I checked, and I didn’t see anything specific. I suspect they just overlooked it. On the other hand, “Rotating at 500 RPMs” sounds ok to me, although it’s also a rate.
Interesting. 500 RPMs does sound more acceptable than 50 MPHs, but it still sounds a little bit awkward to my ears.
MPH is an abbreviation of a rate, consisting of the number of miles traveled divided by the number of hours it took to travel them, stated as the number of miles traveled per single hour. If one travels 180 miles and takes three hours to do it, your rate of travel is 180/3 or 60 MPH – miles per hour. I think it would be indeclinable: “You travel 1000 miles. Calculate how long it would take you to do so at 75, 60, and 35 MPH.” Even though three different rates are being specified, if the abbreviation is read out, it will still be “miles per hour” the same as if it were only a single rate.
The actual names of the grades are listed, along with the Navy equivalents, on Page 33 of said manual. Of special note is this comment in that table:
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I’m not going to try to reopen your link again. I ended up having to reboot my computer.
But I don’t see your point about how the Surgeon General is not a Vice Admiral. Regina Benjamin’s title is the Surgeon General of the United States and her rank is Vice Admiral [URL=“United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps - Wikipedia”]cite](]Here[/url). The same way that Michael Mullen’s title is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his rank is Admiral.
The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is a uniformed service just like the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard are. And all three of these services have a rank of Vice Admiral within them.
Do you mean 65 mile per hours?
You wouldn’t write MPHs for the same reason you wouldn’t write 66 kgs or 42 ms or 88 Ks or 512 GBs; abbreviations for units don’t take an s, even though you say “66 kilograms” or the like. For that matter, I would write 45 RPM even though I might well say “forty-five arr-pee-ems” instead of “forty-five revolutions per minute.”
There’s nothing that says that he has to wear the same uniforms that the Navy guys do, other than tradition. He could decide that the Public Health Service uniforms are going to be throwbacks to 1775 if he so desired, complete with gold braid, breeches, stockings and shoes with buckles.
It’s just convenience and tradition. But yeah, he holds the rank of Vice Admiral.
“Burrito Supreme” is a name in it’s own right as well as a noun-adjective phrase. As such it follows the pluralisation for names :
There, are two Mary Annes in my class and three Billy Bobs in the football teamed and between them they consumed 19 Burrito Supremes befopre aschool yesterday.
as opposed to
There, are two Maries Anne in my class and three Billies Bob in the football team and between them they consumed 19 Burritos Supreme before school yesterday.
Incidentally is there really a Whopper Junior or is it a Junior Whopper?
Following this board’s protocol, I clearly indicated it’s a PDF. Further, I quoted the relevant parts of the manual.
The link I provided is from the Public Health Service itself. I think I’ll go with that. Also, Michael Mullen’s rank is Admiral. Admiral Mullen’s position is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The reason Mullen’s rank is Admiral is because the service he’s in has, by law, that rank instead of General for that paygrade. The Surgeon General’s rank is, again by law, Surgeon General. Kind of nifty, if you ask me.
Actually, that is not the case. As shown by the PHS Commissioned Officer’s Handbook (linked above), the actual rank of their officers are (Paygrade/PHS Grade):
[ul][li]O-10/Assistant Secretary for Health[/li][li]O-9/Surgeon General[/li][li]O-8/Deputy Surgeon General[/li][li]O-7/Assistant Surgeon General[/li][li]O-6/Director[/li][li]O-5/Senior[/li][li]O-4/Full[/li][li]O-3/Senior Assistant[/li][li]O-2/Assistant[/li][li]O-1/Junior Assistant[/li][/ul]
Bolding in the list above is mine.
The table mentioned above also lists the equivalent Navy grades, noting that these are equivalents of the actual PHS grades.
While composing this reply, I missed the post above about there being nothing other than tradition requiring PHS COs to wear uniforms similar to the Navy’s. Actually, there are two things: law and regulation. Here is yet another PDF link, this time to Part 2 of the Commissioned Corps Personnel Manual. No, the officer cannot legally do what bump suggests.
For your edification, there are currently seven (7) Uniformed Services of the United States of America (the links below are not PDF):
[ol][li]Army[/li][li]Navy[/li][li]Marine Corps[/li][li]Air Force[/li][li]Coast Guard[/li][li]Public Health Service Commissioned Corps[/li][li]National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps[/ol][/li]
So, it is conventional to refer to USPH COs by their equivalent Navy grades while speaking and in certain documents. However, for legal documents the officers’ actual grades, the ones they do hold, with the PHS terminology, must be used.
Can we all agree that it is idiotic to address as “general” a person holding an office of attorney general, surgeon general, etc.? I hate that.
Agreed. See post 46.
You’re kind of splitting hairs. It comes down to the fact that the Surgeon General isn’t the highest ranking commissioned officer in the PHS.
The Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Commandant of the Marine Corps have pretty much absolute authority to change the uniforms of their services- the Assistant Secretary for Health likely has the same latitude.
Again, the only reason they use naval uniforms is tradition. All those regulations and stuff are set by the senior officers, just like all the other uniformed services.
About the only things I can think of that are probably standardized by statute are rank insignia, and pay grades. Titles, uniforms, etc.. are almost certainly up to the senior leadership of the services in question.
You asserted that “the officer,” evidently meaning any ol’ PHS Commissioned Corps officer, could do whatever he wants regarding uniform. That is not the case. The PHS CO Manual to which I linked above lays out the statutory authority for the uniform policies. That’s not splitting hairs.
Forgot something. You should be aware that the PHS Act is law, not something the Surgeon General does on his own. Let me repeat a quote:
You should also be aware that the 10 USC CHAPTER 43 is law, not something the service chiefs do on their own:
Sec. 741. Rank: commissioned officers of the armed forces
-STATUTE-
(a) Among the grades listed below, the grades of general and
admiral are equivalent and are senior to other grades and the
grades of second lieutenant and ensign are equivalent and are
junior to other grades. Intermediate grades rank in the order
listed as follows:
Army, Air Force, and Navy and Coast Guard
Marine Corps
--------------------------------------------------------------------
General Admiral.
Lieutenant general Vice admiral.
Major general Rear admiral.
Brigadier general Rear admiral (lower half).
Colonel Captain.
Lieutenant colonel Commander.
Major Lieutenant commander.
Captain Lieutenant.
First lieutenant Lieutenant (junior grade).
Second lieutenant Ensign.
I’m not hairsplitting. I’m stating facts.
For what it’s worth, I’ve emailed the USPHSCC, asking them to clarify the issue of ranks. I’ll post their response here when and if I receive one.
Well, I agree with your inclination. And I’m inclined to apply a similar logic to baseball statistics. We may speak casually of “three RBIs for Slugger in the game,” but when those three events are compiled into a statistic, it seems another matter. (Strictly speaking, RBI is a counting stat, not a rate, but like other counting stats can generate rate stats.)*
I would be thinking of those as things, not figures. Formal military accounts might differ.
No.
- Not that RBI and its derivatives are particularly useful stats.
What’s to clarify? I posted facts directly from the USPH.
I question your interpretation of what was written.
I fail to see any logic in this at all; in fact the logic is directly the reverse. “RBI” itself is simply a count stat; it has no rate component, unlike BA or ERA. It is impossible to have a fraction of an RBI, while it is possible to be going at 11.5 MPH or at 33 1/3 RPM. If you generate a rate stat, such as RBI per at bat, then the stat you are talking about is no longer RBI.
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I would be thinking of those as things, not figures. Formal military accounts might differ.
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I don’t know what this means with respect to the discussion. Which would you write, “150 POW” or “150 POWs”?