Crew Quarters

Originally Posted by Rosencrantz

BTW, Steve! What do you mean when writing "officer in charge of a crew section"? Do you mean sometimes there was an officer "hangig around" in the crew section or what? I know the words but can't get the idea because lack of my english skills.

Sorry about that. I was a radioman on a USN destroyer. We had one First Class Radioman petty officer (like a stabsoberbootsmann, I guess), but he stood regular watches just like any other radioman. Above him we had a Chief Radioman petty officer (like the stabshauptbootsman). He actually didn't come to the radio room very often, but reported all activities to the Captain. Above him was a lieutenant, the Communications Officer. He was in charge of both the radio and flag signalmen. He didn't actually stand a watch in the radio room, and only checked up on us every once in awhile. Above him was the Operations Officer, a senior lieutenant. He was over all the ship and answered directly to the XO (exectutive Officer), and handed down orders to each Officer or Chief Petty Officer under him, and in return reported activities to the XO. He actually ran the ship and reported to the Captain. All of the junior Officers took turns as Officer Of the Deck (OOD, called Officer Of the Day when in port).

What I'm trying to say is, each compartment ran fine without any officers around. The officer's job is to make sure everything is operating normally and tell those under him when they're not doing thier jobs. Even then, it's the enlisted men who do all the work and even the lowest ones usually know more about the actual running of the equipment than any of the officers.

A qualified officer should make the compartment run better, but most of the time it should run fine without him. He should only be needed for emergencies.