Commissioned naval officers originate from the United States Naval Academy, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC), Officer Candidate School (OCS), the since-disestablished Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS), and a host of other commissioning programs such as the “Seaman to Admiral-21” program and the limited duty officer/chief warrant officer (LDO/CWO) selection program. There are also a small number of direct commissioned officers, primarily staff corps officers in the medical, dental, nurse, chaplain and judge advocate general career fields.
Commissioned officers can generally be divided into line officers and staff corps. Line officers (or officers of the line) derive their name from the 18th-century tactic of employing warships in a line of battle to take advantage of cannon on each side of the ship. These vessels were dubbed ships of the line and those who commanded them were likewise called “line officers.” Today, all United States Navy unrestricted line and restricted line officers denote their status with a star located above their rank devices on the sleeves of their blue uniforms and shoulder boards of their white uniforms; metal rank insignia on both collarpoints of khaki shirts/blouses; and cloth equivalents on both collarpoints of navy working uniforms. Line officers can be categorized into unrestricted and restricted communities. Unrestricted line officers (URL) the most visible and well-known, due to their role as the navy’s war-fighting command element. Restricted line officers (RL) concentrate on non-combat related fields, which include marine engineering, aeronautical engineering, ship and aircraft maintenance, meteorology and oceanography, and naval intelligence. They are not qualified to command combat units, but can command organizations in their respective specialized career fields.
Staff corps officers are specialists in fields that are themselves professional careers and not exclusive to the military, for example health care, law, civil engineering and religion. There are eight staff corps: Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Nurse Corps, Medical Service Corps, Chaplain Corps, Navy Supply Corps, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and Civil Engineer Corps. They exist to augment the line communities and are able to be assigned to both line and staff commands. (The exception to this is the case of Civil Engineer Corps officers, who serve as the officers for Seabee units. This requires them to serve in a command capacity for ground combatants when the Seabees are deployed to combat areas.)
A United States Navy enlisted rate (above) indicates where an enlisted Sailor stands within the chain of command, and also defines one’s pay grade. An enlisted sailor’s rate is similar conceptually to a naval officer’s rank. Only Naval Officers carry the term “rank” in the Navy. The word rate refers to an enlisted sailor’s pay grade, while the word rating refers to one’s area of occupational specialization within the enlisted Navy. Associated with the enlisted pay grades is a numbering system from the most junior enlisted sailor (“E-1”) to the most senior enlisted sailor (“E-9”). This enlisted numbering system is the same across all five branches of the U.S. Military.
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