What are all the important positions on a naval ship?

Question

In addition to positions such as XO, CO, navigator, or quartermaster, what are some of the other positions of importance that normally denote leadership of a shipboard department such as Weapons or Engineering? In addition, what are the duties and responsibilities fo these officers?

Answer 1

I agree with yourdoneandover- the diving officer of the watch on my submarine was a very important person. Here's how a sub breaks down-
CO- in charge of sub- usually a Commander
XO- second in command- Lt. Commander or Commander
Engineering officer(ENG)- Lt. Commander
Navigator,Weapons officer, Communications officer- Lt. or higher
Division Officers- Ensign to Lt.
Supply officer- outside of normal chin of command, Lt.
Enlisted- Chief of the Boat(COB)- head enlisted guy Master Chief
EDMC- Head engineering dept. enlisted guy- Master Chief or Senior Chief
Department Chiefs- enlisted head of department, usually in charge of a dozen or so guys- chief petty officer
everyone else is a working stiff like I was.

Help at all?

Answer 2

Depends on the ship obviously, an aircraft carrier is much different than a sub.

order is CO, XO (who is also in charge of damage control), then department heads such as weps, engineering, nav (not quartermaster), the CAG on a carrier is usually separate from the chain of command, but under the CO and XO obviously.

On a sub, the only difference is that the COB (chief of the boat) has a bigger say in matters. He is the senior enlisted man, a master chief...and on my sub, he was a 1st grade ******.

I may be off on some of that...I have been out for a while.

Answer 3

Duties and responsibilities will vary with the command structure and platform. For instance, My husband, a Restricted Line Officer, was also seconded with many duties traditonally given to Unrestricted Line Officers. He even served as OPS for a short time, and technically, he was only a DIVO and not in line for a Dept Head position.

Leadership begins at the Work Center Supervisor position, normally a Senior E5 or Junior E6. from then on, the duties are commisserate with the rank, although many times people may be given leadership roles above their rank, if they are good enough.

Answer 4

I don't mean this to sound smart alecky or anything, but ALL of them are.

For example - my husband is on a ship right now. If he doesn't do his job, they don't have the intel they need to stay safe and do their job.

If the MS doesn't do his/her job, they don't eat (and since they deploy for aprox 6 months at a time no meals could be a problem...)

Without the Corpsman, there isn't anyone to take care of them when they're sick.

Without the Engineers, they could be "dead in the water".

Without the Shopkeepers, they don't have the supplies they need to do their jobs / stay alive.

I could go on and on with this, but I think you see what I'm trying to say here.

Basically, there's a reason there's an expression "we're all in the same boat" - there isn't a person on a Naval Ship who doesn't have a job that needs to be done in order for the ship to function, and, truth be told, there isn't a person on that ship (including the CO), who, if they were incapacitated in some way, didn't have someone else onboard who couldn't step in and do their job in their place (maybe not as well, but it would be done).

Answer 5

My guess is that these will change depending on the vessel you're researching, but hopefully this will serve as a starting point. The link below will take you to the department page for the USS Reuben James, a frigate in the US Navy stationed in Pearl Harbor Hawai'i.

http://www.reuben-james.navy.mil/departments.htm

Answer 6

The ships machinest mates and engineers. Without them the ship wouldn't run. Every position on the ship is very important some just dont get the reconition as the others.

Answer 7

The important position on a naval ship is the person whose got the balls to sink the god damn thing. period.