---
title: 'The United States Navy: Your job in the Navy'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/your-job-in-the-navy-1942/
description: 'Navy recruiting chart: five rating badges above a cruiser, then three columns of trades from Boatswain''s Mate to Bugler, each with a small insignia.'
section: Collection
---

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3. The United States Navy: Your job in the Navy

[![The United States Navy: Your job in the Navy, 1942 US poster: Navy recruiting chart](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/your-job-in-the-navy-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/your-job-in-the-navy-1942.jpg)

# The United States Navy: Your job in the Navy

Navy recruiting chart: five rating badges above a cruiser, then three columns of trades from Boatswain's Mate to Bugler, each with a small insignia, a short list of duties and 'related civil jobs', under 'Your job in the Navy: how to tell it! what it means!'. A banner at the foot reads 'Enlist in the Navy today!'. The sheet lists the jobs and civilian equivalents and omits risk and hardship, a card-stacking selection of what the service offers.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
The UNITED STATES NAVY
[badge captions: Chief Petty Officer (Boatswain's Mate); Petty Officer, Second Class (Gunner's Mate); Petty Officer, First Class (Torpedoman); Petty Officer, Third Class (Carpenter's Mate); Chief Petty Officer (Pharmacist's Mate)]
YOUR JOB IN THE NAVY
HOW TO TELL IT! WHAT IT MEANS!
Specialty marks on Navy rating badges identify almost fifty different kinds of trade experts trained in the fleet and in Navy trade schools. Here's how to recognize them! Here's what their duties are! Here's what your civilian job can be after the war, if you join the Navy now! Find the rating you like . . . then enlist and start Navy training in that trade. If you're already skilled, you may get a rating immediately upon enlistment!
BOATSWAIN'S MATE
GUNNER'S MATE
TURRET CAPTAIN
TORPEDOMAN
QUARTERMASTER
SIGNALMAN
FIRE CONTROLMAN
COOK or BAKER
AVIATION MACHINIST'S MATE
AVIATION ORDNANCEMAN
ELECTRICIAN'S MATE
WATERTENDER or BOILERMAKER
SHIPFITTER, BLACKSMITH, METALSMITH, MOULDER
YEOMAN
AEROGRAPHER
AVIATION METALSMITH
AVIATION RADIOMAN
MACHINIST'S MATE
CARPENTER'S MATE, PAINTER, PATTERNMAKER
STOREKEEPER
[each rating above is followed by a printed DUTIES paragraph and a RELATED CIVIL JOBS line, not transcribed here for length]
The Navy has recently authorized the following new ratings: PARACHUTE RIGGER, RADARMAN, SOUNDMAN, AVIATION PILOT AND RADIO TECHNICIAN.
PHARMACIST'S MATE
MOTOR MACHINIST'S MATE
RADIOMAN
PRINTER
PHOTOGRAPHER
COMMISSARY STEWARD
MUSICIAN
BUGLER, BUGLEMASTER
Enlist IN THE Navy today!
[signature: Matt Murphey USN]
[imprint: NRB-32669-6-10-42-25M]
```

Each rating carries a printed duties paragraph and a 'related civil jobs' line (for example Gunsmith, Navigator, Printer); these are legible at 2000 px but omitted for length. Headings, introduction, new-ratings note, banner, signature and imprint are transcribed.

[← Your Bit Can Help Drive Him Mad!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/your-bit-can-help-drive-him-mad-1942/) [Židovi: izložba o razvoju židovstva (Jews: Exhibition on the Development of Jewry), Zagreb →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/zidovi-izlozba-ndh-1942/)

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- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
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- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
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