A Curiosity of the Navy & Coast Guard Rank System

[Joshism]

I've always wondered why the Navy and Coast Guard use Lieutenant and Lieutenant (junior grade) instead of 1st and 2nd Lieutenant like the Marines, Army, and Air Force. Especially because the term is a mouthful. At the very least why not Junior Lieutenant instead?

Likewise, the Coast Guard (and I assume the Navy) used to have 1st and 2nd Class junior enlisted ranks (Seaman 1st Class & Seaman 2nd Class, etc). Then after WW2 they were changed to Seaman Apprentice and Seaman. Yet they kept the three classes of Petty Officer and the 3+ classes of Warrant Officer.

Anyone know why?

 

[rittmeister]

want them to introduce major and colonel, too

 

[5fish]

Anyone know why?

https://www.federalpay.org/military/coast-guard/ranks

https://www.federalpay.org/military/navy/ranks

There are three seaman ranks just like it was 40 years ago when I was in the navy...

The link tells about being a seaman...

Seaman recruit - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[5fish]

You know I went from E-1 to E-5... My dad went from E-1 to O-4...

 

[rittmeister]

You know I went from E-1 to E-5... My dad went from E-1 to O-4...

do officers need a better swimming ability or is floating enough for them, too?

 

[rittmeister]

I've always wondered why the Navy and Coast Guard use Lieutenant and Lieutenant (junior grade) instead of 1st and 2nd Lieutenant like the Marines, Army, and Air Force. Especially because the term is a mouthful. At the very least why not Junior Lieutenant instead?

Likewise, the Coast Guard (and I assume the Navy) used to have 1st and 2nd Class junior enlisted ranks (Seaman 1st Class & Seaman 2nd Class, etc). Then after WW2 they were changed to Seaman Apprentice and Seaman. Yet they kept the three classes of Petty Officer and the 3+ classes of Warrant Officer.

Anyone know why?

at least in hollywood they call them lieutenant jg but only when reffering to them in the third person. when i first heard that i thought it were name initials (a long time ago) - when adressed directly they are simply lieutenants (same as adressing a lieutenant colonel as colonel) so that's hardly a mouthfull.

you certainly don't want to abandon tradition (or too much of it) in the armed forces - we diid abandon a lot of our own traditional ranks in 1955 to show that we'll be good boys in the future like bringing in brigadegeneral/generalmajor/generalleutnant/general for generalmajor/generalleutnant/general der [insert waffengattung]/generaloberst - german tradition untill then demanded that in the cavalry (and horse artillery) a captain was called a rittmeister (riding master) and a feldwebel a wachtmeister (master of the watch)

the british invent completely new ranks when the founded the raf - which are getting ridiculuos reults when the more moronic elements of my profession translate the raf rank group captain to hauptmann instead of oberst (colonel). that was however the same bunch who used the seal of starfleet's seal team six when bin laden was killed (containing a phaser no2, a klingon skull and three bath'lets).