Question about US Navy rRnk/Rate in USS Enterprise Diary

[rlkillion]

Hello everyone,
Yesterday I was sent 2 volumes of the Diaries of Delmar Ray Stephens AOM 1/c of the USS Enterprise CV-6 (Do I have the coolest job or what!? I work as the Collections Manager at the Peoria Historical Society) Now I decoded this as being Aviation Ordinance Man First Class. However, I am having trouble with what that means as it does not correspond with the current rank structure nor can I find it in WWII tables. It could be the equivalent of a first class seaman E3 or could it be the equivalent of a Petty officer first class? or something else? I would like to know where in the rank structure this fell in 1944-45 and what the equivalent is today. The diaries have some very good first hand information in them but he seems to know an awful lot about the "big picture" friendly and enemy losses and at one point even the date for a atttack in advance. So I am trying to figure out if his rank allowed him to have access to this information, if he used a diary and historical records to fill in details after the war, or if he was going on scuttle but he could pick up. He seems to have been remarkably accurate in the big facts I checked. Now I will need to check records of losses to see what they say but it seems his numbers on enemy losses are greatly inflated as if he is getting the numbers through the grapevine. I look for more interesting information to share later but I thought the modelers here might find this information interesting if doing a USS Enterprise CV-6.
1944
“Dec. 18. Went into drydock. Commence scraping sides and bottom. Our three bladed screws are re-placed with four bladed ones. Screws weigh eight tons each and measure 12.3 feet in diameter.
“Dec.22-Out of dry dockand berth at Ford Island. Rearm and reprovisioning commences. Ship has been repainted blue instead of camouflage for night operations.”
Thanks for any insight you can give

[gi-rene]

First Class?

Thats a First Class Petty Officer. He would be an E-6 by todays standards. I can't really tell ya how the Navy works. I'm in a combined command atm and they treat First Classes like Staff NCOs. Now I don't know if they get that treatment in the Navy... I figured its like the Airforce. Their E-4 is a Senior Airman which isn't considered a NCO though all the other branches treat Corporals and Third Classes as such.

Most likely he was "Leading Petty Officer" for his Ordie shop. I dunno if it'd allow him to know whats going on before hand. I would assume they would have to know what planes were flying so they could load the proper ordnance and ammo on them. But I dunno about full operations.

[rlkillion]

See that was my first thought petty officer. However if you look at WWII charts a Seaman first class(no longer exists by this name) was an E-3 and was abbreviated 1/c. Now the whole rating system on top of rank in the Navy always confuses me but would a AOM 1/c then be a E-3? Yeah in todays Navy a first class is certainly an NCO. This guy knew about losses of his ship's planes...I mean he worked on them and he rearmed them so he knew if something was coming up but he seems to know too much. However that being said I found a diary online of an enlisted guy who worked in the operatins who had this kind of info so I guess it is not too much of a stretch to think this guy either was in a position to know or knew someone who did. I will put up some of what I am wondering about later. I am about to leave work but I am going to being them home to peruse. By the way Army is the same E-4 Specialist is NOT an NCO basically a highly paid private however get the "hard stripe" of E-4 Corporal and then you are a NCO...but only combat arms have corporals.

[gi-rene]

Ooops.. Forgot... I thought WW2 it was the traditional Leading Seaman... forgot about 1/c.

[Panzermacher]

That is the WW2 rank scale.....AOM 1/c is the way they would say....in todays Navy, Aviation Ordinance man, Petty Officer First Class (E-6) In WW2 if it had the Rating list ie "AOM or MM or GM" the following Rank would follow "1/c" or written out it would look like " AOM1c or AOM 1/c" Now...if it was written "Sea1c or Sea1/c" that would be a "Seaman, First Class" or " E-3" I believe the E-3 and below went as:
Seaman Recruit (no Rank...really, yer a boot!) SR
Able Seaman (E-1) AS
Seaman Second Class (E-2) Sea2c
Seaman First Class (E-3) Sea1c
Engineering Departments had a similar enlisted ranking system for E-3 and below, using an F (For Firemen) Just remove the "Sea" and replace it with an "F"
His Rate, (Job in the Navy...not to be confused with RANK!) was Aviation Ordinance man. That depended on what shop his was in....he may have been a "Bomb Handler" (Men who move the bombs from the Magazines to the hangar for staging, or to flight deck for loading on Aircraft) Or he may have been one of the "Loaders" who actually put the ordinance on the plane, and armed it for use. Guarantee one thing, I'll bet me boots he was on the flight deck crash and fire team!

In many ship board shops during WW2, the Leading Petty Officer was a CPO or a 1st Class PO. If he was an LPO of his shop.he would get detailed information like that from his Division Officer....And bear in mind ships were only so big. and news or rumors travel fast. (You were at Mits Bob, similar environment....and you seen how fast Duke could pass news all over that plant!) Well, it works the same way on ships....if something happened and you had a buddy in that Dept., you would hit him up for the "Mess Deck Intellegence" during one of the meals when most of the crew gathered...News of ANY sort goes like wildfire.

Interesting stuff Bob, when do I get to see it ???????

[Panzermacher]

Ok Just thumbed through those journals.... OMG what a insight into the day to day operations of the BIG E! These 2 journals cover some of the most intense combat Big E had in '44 and '45 and list details only someone there would have seen or heard.....Excellent stuff Bob .....Maybe we can find a way to share this here???

[rlkillion]

I will have to see if I can get the guy who volunteered to scan them to get them done. Barring that we can pick and choose some interesting days and transcribe them.

[Panzermacher]

Thats cool, there is some nice stuff there...I would be willing to transpose it and post up a few entries every so and again.... I AM gonna have some free time here soon....