THE PETTY OFFICER'S GUIDE
By RADMHarley Cope USN (Ret.) & Lt. Frederick C.Dyer USNR, '48 Tuck. Military Service Publishing Co. 1953. 490 pp.
Although THE PETTY OFFICER'S GUIDE is a handbook expressly designed for our Navy's non-commissioned officers, it should prove itelf a valuable asset to the library of any naval officer, inactive reservist, veteran, or Navyminded reader.
Here, in clear, concise form is a wealth of factual information and helpful advice for the petty officer, extracted, as the authors state, from "all existing official and unofficial publications." The answers to literally thousands of questions, which have heretofore been buried in a forbidding mass of obscure documents, are made available in this one volume.
The guide will undoubtedly be popular in the fleet for its authoritative "word" on such pertinent regulations for the enlisted man as promotion eligibility, officer training programs, Navy schools, sea/shore duty rotation, pay and allowances, leave and liberty, and the G.I. Bill of Rights. To the reader whose paramount interest is not personal benefit, the guide provides an excellent coverage of such topics as command of the seas, traditions and customs, uniforms and insignia, medals, leadership, and military justice.
Written primarily in a conversational second person form, the manual is extremely easy reading, geared to appeal to the aspiring seamen and younger petty officers whose educational backgrounds are widely varied. The simplicity will also be welcomed by the layman reader whose knowledge of naval affairs is limited.
Included as an appendix to the volume is the most complete dictionary of modern and traditional nautical slang, words, and phrases that this reader knows to be in existence. The glossary is worthy of being published as a text in itself. A goodly number of puzzling naval abbreviations and pronouncable contractions are included with such choice terms as "splice the main brace" and "the what-the-hell flag." The glossary, indeed, THE PETTY OFFICER'S GUIDE, is a necessity on the bookshelf of every navy man and armchair mariner.
