New navy wife needs some advice and input

[Kelli (9/173)]

I am going to be a new navy wife with two kids under 3 and my husband will be leaving for boot camp in march. I am looking for any advice or information from other navy wives. I'm nervous about him being gone and I really am unsure about what to expect please help

[lemonelephant]

Rate is the same thing as rank---E-1, E-2, E-3, E-4.

[Kelli (9/173)]

Oh ok he is an E-2 but was told after boot camp he'd be an E-3 then once he finished a-school he would be an E-4

[Kelli (9/173)]

He will be an aecf but he wont know until week 2 which field it will be either and fc or et..

[sailorwifenmom]

I was asking what his job specialty is. I was a CTT, my husband is a CTR. Our son was going to be a CTN but now he's going to be an IS. It's a bit like playing alphabet soup lol, but just like with the rest of it, you'll get the hang of it. There are still lots of rates that I can't remember off the top of my head, but one of the good things is, if you take COMPASS, they give you a "cheat sheet" with all the jobs and what their rating badge (the little symbol that goes with their rank on their uniform) so you know what job is what. It's good to know - NOT because rank matters for spouses - we are all spouses and we have no rank, but so like when you're dealing with something you can say "The LN2 (Legalman Second Class, or an E-5 who works in base legal) said I needed to come here to get a new power of attorney." (Or whatever...)

[sailorwifenmom]

One of my very good friends is married to an FC :-) He really likes it.

[lemonelephant]

sailorwifenmom, job is rating, but lots of people get rate and rating confused.

[Kelli (9/173)]

Yeah my husband is really hoping to get fc, he is currently a fire fighter so it's right up his alley :)

[sailorwifenmom]

It's very common and considered correct to ask someone what their rate is when you're asking about what job specialty it is among the Active Duty Navy and their spouses. It's even one of the topics the Navy has trained me to teach when working with other spouses, and also something I remember even dating back to my own Sailor days.

While rating is techincally correct, when talking to other Sailors / spouses, when asked what their rate is, they are asking about specialty. (It's considered a bit rude for spouses to ask about rank in a social setting.) Even when filling out forms at medical, they will ask for rate / rank (written like that). What they want you to put is your Sponsor's job(which will include the paygrade - which is where the rating part of it comes in) and then their paygrade (in numeric form). So, to use a fictional Sailor, their spouse would put on that form FC3 / E-4.

It does get a bit complicated - lol - lots of things with the Navy is, just look at how many uniforms they have - and even those have been scaled back over the past few yrs - ;-) but I hope that helps explain why I used the terms I did. :-)