IS A PETTY OFFICER INSIGNIFICANT?
MILITARY LANGUAGE LANGUAGE (1) PETTY OFFICER
MORE THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED TO LEARN ABOUT PETTY OFFICERS
Unless you are from a military family.
And even then, it’s complicated.
On the front page of the Toronto Globe and Mail today, there is a photo of a Petty Officer 2nd class embracing his wife after completing a circumnavigation of North America on the Canadian navy’s patrol vessel, the HMCS Harry De Wolf. (Photo Unavailable. Heaven knows I tried!)
If I were a PO, I would be unhappy (OK pissed off) at the term “Petty Officer.”
In English, the word ‘petty’ means “of little importance; trivial. Or, “of secondary or lesser importance, rank, or scale; minor.”
Similar meanings in the dictionary include trivial, trifling, minor, small, slight, unimportant, insignificant, inessential, inconsequential, negligible, paltry, and many other demeaning terms, including chicken shit.
All This is a demeaning misrepresentation of a petty officer.
A Petty Officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies, including the American, British and Canadian. Petty Officers are roughly equal to a sergeant compared to other military branches.