Petty Officer Third Class

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Petty Officer Third Class is the fourth enlisted rank in Starfleet, just above Crewman and below Petty Officer Second Class, and is the lowest form of non-commissioned officer, equivalent to a Corporal in the Marines or Senior Airman in the Starfighter Corps.

Unlike the Crewman and lower ranks, advancement to Petty Officer Third Class is not automatic given time in service, but is also contingent on performance evaluations by their superiors and rate examinations (test of specialty knowledge), except for certain technical ratings which carry automatic advancement to PO3, after successful completion of the rating's "A" school and fufillment of time in rate requirements. The advancement cycle is currently every 6 months. Only a certain number of billets (job openings for this rank) open up biannually and all Crewmen compete. The top scorers are chosen for advancement, but only in sufficient quantities to fill the billets available.

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 Third Class who has the rating of Fire Control Techinican is called a Fire Control Technician Third 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 Techinican, ST for Sensor Technician, or ET for Electronics Technician. When combined with the petty officer level, this gives the short-hand for the petty officer's rank, such as FT3 for Fire Control Technician Third 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 FT3 Shearer would just be called FT3.

	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

[edit] External links

Petty Officer Third Class article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.