Happy Bday Chief (Petty Officer)

Community General Discussion
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Today is April 1st 2013 marking the 120th birthday of the US Navy’s Chief Petty Officer rank. I wanted to share a few things that I have noticed in my time playing Halo, plus some facts and general guesses, just for fun about Chief’s in general due to his namesake.

-Although in the game most call him “Chief” by current Navy standards he would be addressed as Master Chief, or if they still exist in the UNSC, his rating plus CM (more on this next)
-By current Navy rating standards Chief would more than likely be an SOCM, or Special Warfare Operator Master Chief. SO is his rating or job in the Navy and CM is Master Chief Petty Officer.
-While I can not speak personally of what Special Operations members do at the higher ranks, typically a Master Chief in US Navy take a more administrative role.
-A Master Chief Petty Officer is the highest enlisted rank in the US Navy (an E-9 out of 9 total ranks).
-At the rank of Chief Petty Officer a certain level of technical knowledge is expected, so Chief would probably be expected to be a freaking expert at killing/blowing things up by now :D. Though as said the typical Master Chief is more admin.
-The typical career path that it would take to make Master Chief Petty Officer is 18+ years* in the US Navy ), so Chief made it a bit faster according to Halo lore (haha). *This is based on Master Chiefs I have met and how many years they have
in.
-Master Chiefs are seen as incredibly respected authority, even a Chief Petty Officer will “oversee” new officers when they first join to guide them on the path of being a leader, such as in Forward Unto Dawn.
-And finally, though not related directly to the Chief, the current UNSC and Spartan emblem bare a resemblance to the current Navy emblem, an eagle with it’s wings spread upward clutching items in it’s claw.

With all these things said, 343 (and of course Bungie for starting this party), thank you. I really stepped into Halo at Halo 2 when I first joined the Navy back in 2006. In this world were all the characters in military games or shooters tend to be Marines and Army it was awesome to realize he was a squid like me. I say again thank you for picking a hero that wasn’t just a space marine or an army super solider, he’s a sailor and I found that special connection to the game that was a little more than just playing a great game.

Thank you for reading this I only wanted to entertain and give a few fun facts out.

Fixurownemail (Petty Officer Second Class)

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Interesting read. And though I’m not in the navy myself, I definitely agree its cooler and more original that S117 is in the navy. Scifi stories do seem to overuse space marines like no other branches exist.

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John 117 is a Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (which i think is also rated as E-9), it shows the insignia, taped onto the memorial at the end of Halo 3.

Although this was an interesting read :slight_smile:

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I know this is real, but my motto is to never post something on the internet on April 1st that isn’t meant to be a joke.

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andy2608, you are right he is an E-9. I completely forgot about them showing the rank insignia at the end of 3. Well then extra fun fact that is what rank insignia of a Master Chief looks like as well, expect the placement of the stars and the way the eagle looks is slightly modified in the game. Thank you for pointing that out that reminder.

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OP - I just wanted you to know that your GT is hilarious.

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> andy2608, you are right he is an E-9. I completely forgot about them showing the rank insignia at the end of 3. Well then extra fun fact that is what rank insignia of a Master Chief looks like as well, expect the placement of the stars and the way the eagle looks is slightly modified in the game. Thank you for pointing that out that reminder.

Yeah it was changed in Halo 3 for the UNSC. But John is never directly refered to as a MCPON and same with Pete Stacker. In Halo 3 he is a Gunnery Sgt and refered to as one but in Halo 4 the subtitle refers to him as just a Sgt.

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I have to wonder (and assume) that wording is a bit confusing for Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, as that is “separate” special rank, and that they wrote to kind of say he’s a Master Chief of in Navy. The MCPON is the senior enlisted adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations, basically the officer that runs the Navy. He is all administration and John seems to be a little more hands on, haha.

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I think the MCPON was a posthumous/ceremonial thing, IIRC. I don’t remember offhand and I’d have to do a little digging on that but I don’t think he is currently THE MCPON. :slight_smile: