Petty Officer First Class

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Petty Officer First Class is the sixth enlisted rank in Starfleet, just above Petty Officer Second Class and below Chief Petty Officer, and is a non-commissioned officer.

Similar to Petty Officer Second and Third Class, advancement to Petty Officer First Class is dependent on time in service, performance evaluations by superiors, and rate (technical specialty) examinations. The advancement cycle is currently every 6 months. Only a certain number of billets (job openings for this rank) open up biannually and all petty officers second class compete. The top scorers are chosen for advancement, but only in sufficient quantities to fill the billets available.

First Class Petty Officers normally serve as a Leading Petty Officer (LPO) of a division, and may direct the activities of a division in the absence of the division Chief Petty Officer.

Petty Officers serve a dual role as both technical experts and as leaders. Unlike the sailors below them, there is no such thing as an "undesignated Petty Officer." Every petty officer has both a rate (rank) and rating (job, similar to an MOS in other branches). A petty officer's full title is a combination of the two. Thus, a Petty Officer First Class, who has the rating of Fire Control Technician would properly be called a Fire Control Technician First Class. The term petty officer is, then, only used in abstract, the general sense, when referring to a group of petty officers of different ratings, or when the petty officer's rating is unknown.

Each rating has an official abbreviation, such as FT for Fire Control Technician, STS for Sonar Technician Submarines, or TM for Torpedoman. When combined with the petty officer level, this gives the short-hand for the petty officer's rank, such as FT1 for Fire Control Technician First Class. It is common practice to refer to the petty officer by this short hand in all but the most formal correspondence (such as printing and inscription on awards). Often, the petty officer is just referred to by the short hand designation, without using the surname. Thus FT1 Turnupseed would just be called FT1. A First Class Petty Officer may be generically referred to as PO1 when the sailor's rating is not known, although some prefer to be called simply "Petty Officer (Turnupseed)."

	Enlisted ranks			Non-commissioned officer ranks						Etc	Commissioned ranks						Flag ranks
	E1	E2	E3	E4	E5	E6	E7	E8	E9		O1	O2	O3	O4	O5	O6	O7	O8	O9	O10	O11
Starfleet	CR	CA	CN	PO3	PO2	PO1	CPO	SCPO	MCPO CMCPO FMCPO MCPOSF	WO CDT MID REC	ENS	LTJG	LT	LCDR	CDR	CAPT FCAPT DDIR	CDORE RDML	RADM	VADM	ADM	FADM CinC
Klingon ground troops	Bekk2		Bekk1	Cpl	Sgt			MSgt	SgtMaj		2nd Lt	1st Lt	Capt (HoH)	Maj	LtCol	Col	Brig ('ech)		LtGen	Gen (Sa')
Klingon navy				PO2		PO1	CPO		MCPO		ENS	LTJG	LT (Sogh)	LCDR	CDR (la')	CAPT (HoD)	CDORE (totlh)		VADM	ADM

[edit] External links

Petty Officer First Class article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.}