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I was informed by command triad yesterday of my advancement. In previous command, I have seen one sailor had the chain providing a patch for SDW rating insignia sew on a canvas with each stroke per person in the department. She framed it along with her Shadow Box. So I was wondering, what are some of the Navy traditions for frocking?
Tradition
Frocking
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 11
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Well, I don't know if they still do this anymore, however when I was in service, it was ONE PUNCH to the Insignia Arm for every Chevron you were recieving, by every person (generally friends), however non freinds usually got in on the action also. However again - like I said; I don't know if they are still doing this or not in this Politically Correct Military we have now.......
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Congratulations PO3 (Join to see)! I attended a "Tacking on of the Crow" ceremony in which a number of sailors took turns stitching the crow to the sleeve of a newly promoted petty officer. I remember being worried that they might actually be stitching them onto his arm.
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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
Oh, no doubt, PO3 (Join to see), if I remember right, the new petty officer's crow ended up being upside down or sideways! :-)
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PO3 Chaz Sutherland
When I got frocked for PO3, a line of Petty Officers lined up to tack my crow on. This continued for about a week whenever a PO saw my new crow. When I qualified subs, the same thing was done to 'secure' my Dolphins. Given there are frog pins on the back of the Dolphins and that it's located on the chest, you can imagine which hurt more.
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MSgt (Join to see)
My Crows were tacked on. My initial one was on my Left Sleeve, and my arm was bruised all around that area. For the remainer of the week, other Petty Officers and Chiefs would tack my collar devices on.
It used to be a Right of Passage.
It used to be a Right of Passage.
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PO2 Robert Cuminale
I was at another base when my advancement date came. There was just a chief and three other guys there keeping the radio comms up. I was there two days a week at the telephone exchange. It was an AF base we were shutting down. Everyone was OK except for the guy who was a jerk. Of course he had to be a jerk and punch it down hard but everyone else was OK. When I got back home no one really paid a lot of attention to it. My only coworkers were a ICC and an IC2. I was a CE3 and still the junior man still cleaning the head.
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Frocking is a U.S. military term for persons selected for promotion to allow them to wear the insignia of the higher grade and all the benefits of such without the pay before the official date of promotion (the "date of rank"). Frocking is a result of the fact that the number of people who may serve in a particular rank is restricted by federal law. Thus, even though an individual may have been selected for promotion and, for officers, confirmed by the Senate, they must often wait for a vacancy (headroom) to occur in order to be officially promoted. Frocking customs and policies vary across military services, particularly for enlisted members; in the United States Army a general officer may request authority to frock soldiers of his command; in the United States Air Force, only senior field grade and general officers are usually frocked. The United States Navy makes use of frocking much more frequently than do the Army and the Air Force. An example of this is when all new chief petty officers of the United States Navy are frocked on September 16 of each year, although their official date of rank will be at different times over the next year.
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CPO William Zaczek
Let me add. This is an investment in a person not the rank, This shows (gives) the person allot of confidence that the command has in this person
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Sewing the new rate on a top by each member of the department offering a piece of advice fir every stitch placed. The intention was to give enough good advice that the new rate stays on.
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We use to "tack" on the crow which was giving them a love tap (frog punch) on the left arm on the crow. Other then that first round was on newly rated individuals and then we bought all their drinks the rest of the celebration.
Just one question though. Who has a shadow box while they are still in?
Just one question though. Who has a shadow box while they are still in?
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PO3 (Join to see)
oh i don't know PO1 Sean Reynolds but lot of people have it in my previous command.
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Everyone above rank was allowed to "tack" on your chevron by punching you in the shoulder.
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Reading all the discussion here are interesting, but it seems terms are being mixed up. Frocking or to be frocked basically means to have your crow or anchors pinned on you before your real advancement date. Tacking is the pretty much what is being discussed here. What used to really happened was stopped just before I retired and in some instances for a good reason. Normally when your crow was tacked on they would "tack" or punch your arm where the crow was. I have seen people with black and blue arms afterward, as some people took that as a time to take a cheap shot and the person that was advanced. If they are now sewing on your crow, it's still a great sign of respect to acknowledge your accomplishment.
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When I was in it was "tacking" on the crow, but it was done by only the service members of that rank.
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CPO William Zaczek
"Tacking on the crow" was and still is a show of respect and acceptance to that individual. However, sometimes it has been taken to the extreme causing bodily, sometimes permanent, damage to the arm.
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I don't remember ever having having rank "stitched" on. BUT........ The dolphins were tacked on for a whole day (I used a pink pearl rubber eraser as a backing in my shirt). Then when we hit port, the Capt. did the formal, those earning the dolphins started a tab at the club. THEN at some point you drank your dolphins out of a pitcher of the most vile alcoholic and dishwater solution you ever saw. Oh and you came up with 'em in your mouth, then prompting ran out the door and started the purge........ I woke up on the golf course between the club and the tender in Rota at 4AM where I had passed out in the catus. I got back to the boat, and got the Lancher rover to pull some of the tines out till the Corpsman got up.
BTW its a long walk back to the boat and the base shuttles shut down I believe at 1AM.
I was a hurting unit for a week! But I damn sure remember being proud of those dolphins!
Oh as to tacking them on, my chest was black and blue!
BTW its a long walk back to the boat and the base shuttles shut down I believe at 1AM.
I was a hurting unit for a week! But I damn sure remember being proud of those dolphins!
Oh as to tacking them on, my chest was black and blue!
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