Posted on May 22, 2015
PO3 Hospital Corpsman
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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?
Posted in these groups: Tradition crest TraditionUS NavyD9695f94 Frocking
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Responses: 11
PO2 Michael Stinar
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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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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
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Edited 9 y ago
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
GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
9 y
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
PO3 Chaz Sutherland
9 y
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 Security Business Analyst
MSgt (Join to see)
9 y
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.
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PO2 Robert Cuminale
PO2 Robert Cuminale
9 y
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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CPO William Zaczek
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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
CPO William Zaczek
9 y
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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