Navy Rates are gone.

The writing was on the wall for Navy Rates. When MCPON Stevens announced earlier this year that sweeping changes were coming to the Navy Rating system, we might have known. Most people assumed that the intention was to just remove the concept of “cross-rating,” or changing jobs, in favor of simply holding multiple rates.

What nobody expected, however, was that they’d bring about the end of Navy Rates altogether. Certainly, it was brought up. “What are we going to be called if we have multiple rates?”

“What are we going to be called if we have multiple rates?”

If a Personnel Specialist (PS) cross-trains as a Yeoman (YN), does he become a PSYN? What if he cross-trains as a Quartermaster (QM)? It’s silly to think we’d have a PSYNQM1 running around.

Still, with the newly-announced end of Navy Ratings, plenty of sailors are righteously furious. Many sailors spent months, years early in their career trying to get into the training pipeline so they could be called “Corpsman,” or “Gunner’s Mate,” or “Boatswain’s Mate.” We’ve had some of our rates since 1775, and in one fell swoop, they’re gone.

Why did they do it?

Earlier this year, MCPON Stevens announced sweeping changes to Navy Ratings. At the meeting Thursday, he frequently mentioned that this move was intended to broaden sailor’s horizons post-Navy. Even for those sailors who are staying in for the full twenty, this can be a good thing. As a Sonar Technician, your job prospects are somewhere between “Lockheed-Martin” and “jack-diddly-squat.”

While that’s a nice benefit, it’s assuming that command-level leaders want nothing but the best for their sailors. If a logistics specialist has a knack and passion for photography, I’m willing to bet his options for cross-training will be other supply specializations, and not Mass Communications – Photography.

In this sailor’s opinion, this will inevitably be used as a tool to milk more work out of sailors onboard ships without having to request billets for additional sailors. Sailors are already stretched thin on ships, and what will most likely happen is that sailors will be pulling double-duty to remain competitive for evals. It will likely steady out over time as the program is implemented, but green-eyed officers onboard ships will almost certainly see this as a cost-saving tool at the expense of their sailors.

Only time will tell whether or not sweeping change will turn out to be a positive change. It would certainly be great to have sailors who have multiple skillsets for civilian employment post-Navy. Just prepare for the next few years to suck while they figure out the future of Navy rates.

Know that Navy Crow will remain here, embracing the suck with you.