All you Sailors, can you help identify this patch?

[Decoligny]

This was my dad's, he actually passed the test for 1st class but I came along and screwed it up. BT designation no longer exists.
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He was a Petty Officer Second Class, rated as a Boilermaker.

 

[JamesBell]

This is one of those traditions of yesteryear. The apprentice petty officers weren’t actually petty officers. These insignia were designating leadership billets in recruit training. They didn’t designate rank, they designated responsibility.

 

[Decoligny]

Here is my rating badge the day I got out. I was an MT2 Petty Officer Second Class E-5.
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That is an old patch before my time but I think they are for designating apprentices back around WWII like the other guys show,
Today apprentices are designated by just diagonal hash marks without chevrons or the crow as they have not specialized in a rating yet and are still free to chose.
Today you have to reach E-4 PO third class to receive your crow like the young lady Bosun Petty Officer above.
There is an old naval tradition involved in finally receiving your crow called tacking on your crow so it won't fly off as it took a while to get. That means everyone you pass is going to slug that thing as hard as they can when they pass you. That doesn't sound to bad until about the 3rd day and your arm is bruised up pretty good and some jerkwad just notices it. Will about make you fall to your knees. I think they called stuff like that Hazing now. I came up through the ranks back when the military was still fairly hardcore when guys just about like Gunny Hartman ran the place.

Nowadays they are allowed one ceremonial “tack-on” when actually awarding the rank. Usually it’s the top Enlisted member in the unit on one side, and your direct supervisor on the other. It’s nothing more than a light tap on the arm, both sides at once.

 

[JamesBell]

Nowadays they are allowed one ceremonial “take-on” when actually awarding the rank. Usually it’s the top Enlisted member in the unit on one side, and your direct supervisor on the other. It’s nothing more than a light tap on the arm, both sides at once.

They started trying to do that towards the end of my time in the Marines. When someone got promoted the insignia was no longer driven into the shoulder without backing. The gauntlet line to receive the punches (and knees for new corporals) were moved from the company area to the barracks. People were holding on for all they were worth. I’m not saying it’s bad that we no longer do those things in our society- but I am saying I’m glad I got to experience it.

 

[Glock 'em down]

All I can say is that I'm glad I went Army. Approaching an officer's desk and announcing my rank and name would take forever in the Navy.

All I had to say was "Specialist" Miller. But then, in most commands that I was in, we seldom ever had to go before an officer.

My dad was a sailor and I remember as a kid asking him why the navy instead of army. He replied...

"Navy gets the gravy - Army gets the beans!"

 

[leemozoid]

All I know is that if you look in the webster's dictionary under squid, it says it's the lowest form of MARINE life. Sorry, I could not let this opportunity pass.lol

You know if it wasn't for the Navy the USMC would never leave the pier.

 

[C_Hallbert]

All I know is that if you look in the webster's dictionary under squid, it says it's the lowest form of MARINE life. Sorry, I could not let this opportunity pass.lol

Semper Fi!

 

[C_Hallbert]

My wife finished Navy Boot Camp about about 5 months before we met.We’re still together after 53 years. She was a Navy Corpswave (Hospital Corpsman). She’s the girl in the middle …..

 

[TerryMiller]

My dad was a sailor and I remember as a kid asking him why the navy instead of army. He replied...

"Navy gets the gravy - Army gets the beans!"

All my uncles on my dad's side were WWII Navy vets, so I heard all kinds of stuff like that. However, I didn't want the Navy because if something was to happen to me, I wanted to be on dry ground and not out in the middle of nowhere.

Also, I've toured Navy ships and seen where those folks had to sleep. In my time in the Army after Basic and AIT, the spaces I lived in were either 2-man rooms or where I was in one by myself. Oh, and the food I was supplied wasn't all that bad...

...certainly not "all beans."

 

[Glock 'em down]

All my uncles on my dad's side were WWII Navy vets, so I heard all kinds of stuff like that. However, I didn't want the Navy because if something was to happen to me, I wanted to be on dry ground and not out in the middle of nowhere.

Also, I've toured Navy ships and seen where those folks had to sleep. In my time in the Army after Basic and AIT, the spaces I lived in were either 2-man rooms or where I was in one by myself. Oh, and the food I was supplied wasn't all that bad...

...certainly not "all beans."

LoL! Yeah, if you were to kick off out in the middle of the north Atlantic or somewhere, they just dumped your ass overboard, called it "burial at sea." More like feeding the sharks.

Dad was lucky. He got in in 1956...just after Korea/before Vietnam. He never regretted it. He used to talk about all the places he had been. He was stationed in Rhode Island, so he got to see all of Europe. Spain was his favorite. He got to see a real life bullfight.

My niece is stationed in San Diego. She has seen Hawaii (4 times) the Philippines, and most of Asia.