NEWS Navy to end ending all enlisted ratings!

[Gatordev]

The question I have is when you have, let's say, a PR1 like person (not a PR1 anymore) who also has, let's say, an AZ NOS (the article says they can for career flexibility), who gets to decide what NOS they're going to use for the purpose of detailing? A squadron is still going to need to have X number of PR-like and AZ-like people onboard. In this case, would one person count for both billets?

A valid concern, but on the Reserve side, this can already happen (theoretically) and it's taken care of by "the system" and its codes. The 15 different emails I got today (and the NAVADMIN) mention that the PERS system is also changing with the policy change, so I'm thinking this won't be quite as much of an issue as it could be in your scenario. I'm sure the PERS system will be online in FY20. So we're good. What could go wrong?

 

[LET73]

I was involved with some of this process. There's a lot of sensible reasons behind the changes, and as valuable as tradition is, the rating system was causing a lot of problems. This is kind of a cut-the-knot solution, but it needed doing.

I am glad SECNAV decided to keep "Seaman" in use. We couldn't come up with an alternative that didn't sound dumb.

I'm honestly interested in the reasons behind it, and the problems it will solve or mitigate. I'm sure there are reasons beyond trying to be like the other services and destroying tradition, but I don't think that my Sailors and CPOs are necessarily seeing why a rating that they worked hard to earn is being taken away.

But yeah, at least Seaman is still in use. Calling them mer-people or something would have been a bit much.

 

[LFCFan]

I'm honestly interested in the reasons behind it, and the problems it will solve or mitigate. I'm sure there are reasons beyond trying to be like the other services and destroying tradition, but I don't think that my Sailors and CPOs are necessarily seeing why a rating that they worked hard to earn is being taken away.

But yeah, at least Seaman is still in use. Calling them mer-people or something would have been a bit much.

From a PR standpoint they sort of screwed this up by not explaining how everything was going to look when all is said and done. So you end up getting told one part of the policy that is going to ruffle feathers without getting the whole (hopefully good) scoop. One thing that I don't buy is the "this will help our sailors have an easier time explaining their jobs" when many rates are far easier to understand ("I'm an XY technician") than some numerical code. Also, MOSes in other branches still have a name associated with them...so I wouldn't be shocked if sailors were still allowed to say "I'm an aviation ordnanceman" when all is said and done, even though you wouldn't use that when addressing them or talking about their rank.

I was never a fan of calling sailors by their rate, mainly because if I didn't know the sailor I didn't know what their title was, and I'm not in the business of shipmating people. I thought it would have made sense for sailors to wear a collar device with their rate like warrants do, but I guess that's never happening.

 

[LET73]

From a PR standpoint they sort of screwed this up by not explaining how everything was going to look when all is said and done. So you end up getting told one part of the policy that is going to ruffle feathers without getting the whole (hopefully good) scoop. One thing that I don't buy is the "this will help our sailors have an easier time explaining their jobs" when many rates are far easier to understand ("I'm an XY technician") than some numerical code. Also, MOSes in other branches still have a name associated with them...so I wouldn't be shocked if sailors were still allowed to say "I'm an aviation ordnanceman" when all is said and done, even though you wouldn't use that when addressing them or talking about their rank.

I was never a fan of calling sailors by their rate, mainly because if I didn't know the sailor I didn't know what their title was, and I'm not in the business of shipmating people. I thought it would have made sense for sailors to wear a collar device with their rate like warrants do, but I guess that's never happening.

Yeah, I agree that they screwed it up. I'm on a ship now, and I spent this afternoon talking to Sailors in all different rates, who all feel like something they earned has been taken away from them, and I couldn't explain why. I don't know, and from the information I have, I don't agree. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing, but I found out about the change when I was reading message traffic. I've got no way to explain to anyone how putting "B440" on a resume tells civilians what you did in the Navy. I also don't see why they're using cross training as a selling point. I've seen what happens when a rate that specializes in one thing gets folded into a related rate. Expertise disappears, and serious problems can come up. Are we talking about sending people through schools to give them different, but related, NOSs? What happens to their careers if they stick with one NOS and get good at it? What happens to the Navy if advancement depends on getting multiple NOSs and bouncing around between them? If you have to spend years to become a technical expert in your NOS, but you won't advance if you do that, where does continuity and expertise come from?

Also, I'd be shocked if the AOs stopped calling themselves AOs. All that IYAOYAS stuff isn't going anywhere.

 

[jmcquate]

Am I totally missing something, or is change part of this helping resumes getting through the HR Nazis at civilian employers when they get out?

 

[Dawgfan]

RAG/CAG moment? When was the last time there were Replacement Air Groups and Commander Air Groups?

 

[AllYourBass]

The sailors on my ship are having a blast with this policy on the 1MC right now. There's a whole lot of "PETTY OFFICER FIRST CLASS SCHMUCKATELLI, UNITED STATES NAVY, PLEASE DIAL..." and such going on. No idea what to make of the policy just yet, but it was amusing listening to SH2 talk about how he'll never achieve his dream of making SH1.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

The question I have is when you have, let's say, a PR1 like person (not a PR1 anymore) who also has, let's say, an AZ NOS (the article says they can for career flexibility), who gets to decide what NOS they're going to use for the purpose of detailing? A squadron is still going to need to have X number of PR-like and AZ-like people onboard. In this case, would one person count for both billets?

Manning problems solved, send all sailors to get qualified for 2 or 3 NOS.

 

[IKE]

I wonder if there was ever an SH1 Thot...

I wonder what this will do to rating exams, but I'm too lazy to read the source article. Oh well.

 

[sevenhelmet]

The sailors on my ship are having a blast with this policy on the 1MC right now. There's a whole lot of "PETTY OFFICER FIRST CLASS SCHMUCKATELLI, UNITED STATES NAVY, PLEASE DIAL..." and such going on. No idea what to make of the policy just yet, but it was amusing listening to SH2 talk about how he'll never achieve his dream of making SH1.

Hmmm... this makes me think it'll be SA draining for leaders trying to identify which shop a sailor is in. It has been nice to see on NMCI and other correspondence right away what someone's job is and where I can find them. It probably won't end up being that big of a deal, but the status quo in me says "why make it harder for no apparent reason?"

I honestly think this was a solution in search of a problem.

 

[AQ-AT-NAVCIV]

Am I totally missing something, or is change part of this helping resumes getting through the HR Nazis at civilian employers when they get out?

Who puts their Rate on a civ Resume?

 

[AQ-AT-NAVCIV]

Kind of on topic, but has anyone else seen the Ready Relevant Learning brief?

Massive changes coming to A schools and C schools training! Expect new arrivals to have less training.

 

[SynixMan]

RAG/CAG moment? When was the last time there were Replacement Air Groups and Commander Air Groups?

Replacing a one syllable acronym with 3+ was a mistake.

Break Break

I love a lot of our Naval Traditions, but I'm not sad about this change. We were the only service to tie job to rank and it was confusing as hell. Job type slang (Mechs, Framers, Ordies, etc) will live on just like it does in every service.

 

[Sonog]

So much for the DEMOT code

 

[Brett327]

I'll say this, leadership is a little miffed right now at how this was rolled out. We all had a 12 hour heads up, in contrast with the months of lead time to prep for the roll out of post DADT or the recent TG policy changes. I can't speak to whether or not this change will be good or bad right now, but the way it has been rolled out thus far has been suboptimal.